The evangelization of the world in this generation

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THE EVANGELIZATION OP THE WORLD
IN THIS GENERATION

)

THE EVANGELIZATION OF

THE WORLD IN THIS

GENERATION

BY

JOHN R. MOTT

^

NEW YORK

STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT

FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS

iqoi

)l

COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY

STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT
FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS

6V

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I WISH to acknowledge gratefully my obliga-
tion to the missionaries, secretaries of missionary
societies, professors in colleges and seminaries,
and all others, who, by affording information, or
by giving counsel and criticism, have helped me
in the preparation of this book.

JOHN K. MOTT.
New York, August, 1900.

\1

CONTENTS

PAGE

I. Definition, or, What is Meant by the
Evangelization of the World in this
Generation 1

II. The Obligation to Evangelize the World 17

III. Difficulties in the Way op Evangelizing

THE World 30

IV. The Possibility of Evangelizing the

World in this Generation in View
OF the Achievements op the First
Generation of Christians 51

V. The Possibility op Evangelizing the
World in this Generation in View op
Some Modern Missionary Achievements 79

VI. The Possibility op Evangelizing the
World in this Generation in View op
the Opportunities, Facilities and Re-
sources OF the Church 104

VII. The Possibility of Evangelizing the
World within a Generation as Viewed
BY Leaders in the Church 133

VIII. Factors Essential to the Evangelization

OF THE World in this Generation . . 160

IX. The Evangelization op the World in

THIS Generation as a Watchword . . 196

Bibliography 311

Analytical Index 235

Ai

DEFINITION, OR, WHAT IS MEANT BY THE
EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD IN THIS

GENERATION

The closing years of the nineteenth century
have witnessed in all parts of Protestant Chris-
tendom an unprecedented development of mis-
sionary life and activity among young men and
young women. A remarkable manifestation of
this interest in the extension of the Kingdom of
Christ has been among students. The Student
Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, taking
its rise at a conference of American and Canadian
students in 1886, has spread from land to land,
until it has now assumed an organized form in all
Protestant countries. It has been transplanted
even to the colleges of mission lands, so that to-
day the Christian students of the Occident and
the Orient, of the Northern and the Southern
Hemispheres, are united in the sublime purpose
of enthroning Jesus Christ as King among all
nations and races of men. The reality of their
consecration is proved by the fact that during the
1

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOKLD

past decade over two thousand of them, after
completing a thorough college or university prep-
aration, have gone out from North America and
Europe under the regular missionary societies of
the Church to work in non-Christian lands. A
still larger number are equipping themselves for
similar service abroad.

In several countries, notably in the United
States, Canada, Great Britain and Ireland, the
members of this Movement have adopted as their
watchword. The Evangelization of the World in
this Generation. A great number of their fellow-
students who, although not volunteers for foreign
missions, recognize their equal burden of respon-
sibility for the world's evangelization, have taken
the same watchword as a molding influence in
their life plans. The idea is taking strong hold,
also, on a multitude of other men and women.
Eminent leaders of the various branches of the
Church of Christ, both in Christian lands and on
the mission field, have endorsed the Watchword
and have urged the desirability of its adoption by
all Christians as expressive of an inspiring ideal as
well as of a primary and urgent duty.

A watchword which has in so brief a time
gained a powerful hold on the minds of the future
leaders of thought, and which is already begin-
2

DEFINITION

ning to make itself felt in the Church, is mani-
festly worthy of careful consideration. In such a
consideration it is important that we clearly un-
derstand at the outset what is meant by the evan-
gelization of the world in this generation. It
means to give all men an adequate opportunity to
know Jesus Christ as their Saviour and to become
His real disciples. This involves such a distri-
bution of missionary agencies as will make the
knowledge of the Gospel accessible to all men. It
would seem that Christ logically implied this
when He commanded His followers, "Go ye into
all the world and preach the gospel to the whole
creation ;'^^ when He told them to "make dis-
ciples of all the nations;"^ when He enjoined
upon them " that repentance and remission of
sins should be preached in his name unto all the
nations, beginning from Jerusalem;"' and when
He said unto them, " Ye shall be my witnesses
both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Sa-
maria, and unto the uttermost part of the
earth."* Obviously this does not express all
that He in His final charges has given us to
do ; but it does define the first and most im-
portant part of our missionary obligation, — first

' St. Mark xvi. 15. ' St. Matt, ixviii. 19.

3 St. Luke xxiv. 47. * Acts i. 8.

3

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

because knowledge of Christ precedes accept-
ance of Him, and most important because on a
knowledge of Christ depends all else involved in
the Great Commission.

The Gospel which is to be preached to every
creature is the Gospel which St. Paul and the
other early Christians preached. Its main out-
lines are set forth in the fifteenth chapter of the
first letter to the Corinthians, in which St. Paul
sums up the Gospel which he had preached to
them: "I delivered unto you first of all that
which I also received, how that Christ died for
our sins according to the scriptures ; and that He
was buried ; and that He hath been raised on the
third day according to the scriptures."^ The
many side-lights on the preaching of the Apostles
given in the Acts and in the Epistles make plain
that the substance and burden of their message or
gospel were the facts about Jesus Christ — His
wonderful life and works and teachings ; His
death for the remission of sins ; His resurrection
and ascension ; His constant intercession ; His
sending of the Holy Spirit to convict, to trans-
form, to guide and to energize men ; and the
promise of His own return.

What is it to preach the Gospel ? The Greek

' I Cor. XV. 3, 4.
4

DEFINITION

words principally used in the New Testament
mean to proclaim as heralds, or to transmit good
news. Other words or expressions less frequently
used are to talk or converse, to reason or discuss,
to testify or bear witness, to teach and to ex-
hort. Examples of all these forms of preaching,
or of communicating a knowledge of Christ and
His mission to men, are to be found in the prac-
tice of the early Church. The qualifications of the
worker or speaker, and the circumstances in which
he found himself placed, determined the manner
of his presentation of the truth as it is in Christ.

So to-day we find the missionaries proclaiming
and applying the Gospel in sermons or addresses
in mission halls; expounding and discussing the
truth in bazars, inns and street chapels ; convers-
ing about Christ as they visit from house to house
and as they mingle with the people socially at
feasts and public gatherings ; teaching the system
of Christian doctrine in schools and colleges ; cir-
culating the printed Scriptures and other Christian
literature ; illustrating the Gospel by Christ-like
ministry to the body, and by the powerful object
lessons of the consistent Christian life and of the
well-ordered Christian home ; and ever pressing
the claims of Christ upon individuals as they are
met within the sphere of one's daily calling. In
5

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

all these and in other ways the Christian worker
by voice and by life, by pen and by printed page,
in season and out of season, seeks to set forth those
facts about Christ which in all lands have been
found to be the power of God unto the salvation
of every man that believeth.

The Gospel must be preached in such a manner
as will constitute an intelligent and intelligible
presentation of the message. This necessitates
on the part of the preacher such a knowledge of
the language, the habits of thought and the moral
condition of those who are to be evangelized as
will enable them to understand what is said. Above
all it involves the accompanying power and work
of the Holy Spirit.

If the Gospel is to be preached to all men it ob-
viously must be done while they are living. The
evangelization of the world in this generation,
therefore, means the preaching of the Gospel to
those who are now living. To us who are respon-
sible for preaching the Gospel it means in our
life-time ; to those to whom it is to be preached
it means in their life-time. The unevangelized for
whom we as Christians are responsible live in this
generation ; and the Christians whose duty it is to
present Christ to them live in this generation. The
phrase "in this generation," therefore, strictly

DEFINITION

speaking has a different meaning, for each person.
In the last analysis, if the world is to be evangel-
ized in this or any generation it will be because
a sufficient number of individual Christians recog-
nize and assume their personal obligation to the
undertaking.

To consider negatively the meaning of the evan-
gelization of the world in this generation may
serve to prevent some misconceptions. It does not
mean the conversion of the world within the gen-
eration. Our part consists in bringing the Gospel
to bear on unsaved men. The results are with
the men whom we would reach and with the Spirit
of God. We have no warrant for believing that
all who have the Gospel preached unto them will
accept it. On the other hand, however, we have a
right to expect that the faithful preaching of the
Gospel will be attended with conversions. We
should not present Christ in an aimless and nnex-
pectant manner, but with the definite purpose of
influencing those who hear us to believe on Him
and become His disciples. Like St. Paul at Thes-
salonica, we should preach the Gospel " in much
assurance." * We are not responsible for the re-
sults of our work, however, but for our fidelity and
thoroughness.

> I Thess. i. 5.
7

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

It does not imply the hasty or superficial preach-
ing of the Gospel. Professor Warneck wisely
emphasizes the truth that the '' rejection [of the
Gospel] can be made only with knowledge, and
that this can be the case only when the announ-
cing has been completely understood."^ The de-
liverance of the message must be effective, as law-
yers would say, from the point of view of the hearer
as well as of the speaker. This is necessary in order
that the hearer may have full responsibility for his
choice. So the work of evangelization is not an
easy task. At rare times it may be accomplished
by proclaiming the message once or twice ; it may
necessitate, however, not only frequent repetition
of the facts about Christ but also long and patient
instruction. The missionary must reckon with and
surmount diflSculties incident to language, age,
grade of intelligence, heredity and environment.
If the enterprise of world evangelization calls for
urgent and aggressive action, with equal emphasis
it calls for perseverance and thoroughness. It is
maintained that the idea of the evangelization of
the world in this generation does not do violence
to such a conception of the proclamation of the
Gospel.

' " Die moderne Weltevangelisations-Theorie." Allge-
meine Missions-Zeitschrifi. Vol. XXIV., 315.

8

DEFINITION

It does not signify the Christianization of the
world, if by that is meant the permeating of the
world with Christian ideas and the dominance of
the principles of Christian civilization in all parts
of the world. If we may jndge by history, that
would require centuries. Of what country to-day
can it be said that it is governed by the principles
of Jesus Christ ?

It does not involve the entertaining or support-
ing of any special theory of eschatology. For ex-
ample, the holding of this idea does not, as some
have assumed, necessitate a belief in the premillen-
nial view of the coming of Christ. Nor does it
stand in the service of any other particular theory
of eschatology. Men entertaining widely different
opinions as to the second advent of Christ accept
alike this view of world-wide evangelization.
Moreover, in advocating the evangelization of
the world in this generation a limit is not set
within which God is to accomplish any given
part of His purpose for the world. A period
is described, however, in which Christians should
discharge their responsibility toward an unevan-
gelized world.

It is not to be regarded as a prophecy. Stress
is placed on what may be done and ought to be
done, not on what is actually to occur. Is it not
9

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOELD

possible thus to urge a duty without venturing a
prediction ?

It does not minimize, but rather emphasizes, the
importance of the regular forms of missionary
work. A clearer understanding of the subject will
be gained by considering the relation of the princi-
pal methods of missionary work to the enterprise of
world-wide evangelization. These are educational,
literary, medical and evangelistic. These methods
must not be regarded as antagonistic to one anoth-
er. On the contrary, where their true relationship
is recognized and maintained, they support and
strengthen each other. Each is indispensable to
the common object of world evangelization. " The
evangelistic method," as Dr. James S. Dennis has
observed, " must not be regarded as monopolizing
the evangelistic aim, which should itself pervade
all the other methods." * In a non-Christian land
everything which manifests the spirit of Christ is
in an important sense evangelistic. Every method
should be employed which makes the Gospel intel-
ligible and acceptable to men.

The various means of carrying on missionary
work are well summarized in the words of the reso-
lution framed and introduced by Alexander Duff
at the Union Missionary Convention held in New
' " Foreign Missions after a Century," 228.
10

DEFINITION;

York in 1854, and unanimously adopted by the
delegates :

"Resolved, As the general sense of this Conven-
tion, that the chief means of divine appointment
for the evangelization of the world are — the faith-
ful teaching and preaching of the pure gospel of
salvation by duly qualified ministers and other
holy and consistent disciples of the Lord Jesus
Christ — accompanied with prayer and savingly
applied by the grace of the Holy Spirit, such
means, in the providential application of them by
human agency, embracing not merely instruction
by the living voice, but the translation and ju-
dicious circulation of the whole written word of
God — the preparation and circulation of evan-
gelical tracts and books — as well as any other
instrumentalities fitted to bring the word of
God home to men's souls — together with any proc-
esses which experience may have sanctioned as the
most efficient in raising up everywhere indigenous
ministers and teachers of the living Gospel." ^

Educational work sustains a vital relation to
that of evangelization. In some parts of the
world more people have been led to accept Christ
through educational missionary effort than through
any other agency. George Bowen maintained that

' " Proceedings of the Union Missionary Convention," 15.
11

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

a majority of all converts in Western India were
the result of educational work.^ Mission schools
have been the most successful agency in reaching
certain classes, for example, the higher castes in
India. One of the few ways of bringing a knowl-
edge of Christ to Mohammedans, as in Egypt and
India, has been through education. This also has
been one of the chief forces in opening the zenanas
to women missionaries. In Japan, mission schools
proved to be as much an entering wedge as did
medical work in China. Education has done more
than any other agency to undermine heathen su-
perstitions and false systems of belief, thus facili-
tating the work of preaching the Gospel by remov-
ing false ideas which already had possession of the
mind. It would be a calamity to the missionary
enterprise to leave the mighty weapon of education
to be wielded alone by agencies hostile to the
spread of Christianity. Education, from the point
of view of evangelization, is essential as a means
for raising up and training native preachers and
teachers and Christian leaders for all departments
of life. If mission schools fail as an evangelistic
agency, it is not because they teach, nor because

' Paper by Dr. D. Mackicban on " Education as a Mission-
ary Agency " in " Report of the TJiird Decennial iVIissionary
Conference" (held at Bombay, 1892-93), II., 433.
12

DEFINITION

of what they teach, but because they lose sight of
the evangelistic aim, or because they are not con-
ducted by men of evangelistic spirit.

Literary missionary work is of very great value
in promoting evangelization, both as a direct agen-
cy and also as supplementary to all other forms of
missionary activity. The evangelization of a people
necessitates native evangelizing agencies, and these
cannot be developed without the Bible. Without
the translation of the Bible into the various ver-
naculars and without the development of Christian
literature in them, it would be impossible to dif-
fuse the knowledge of the Gospel throughout the
world in a generation. Vernacular Christian litera-
ture, especially of a practical, spiritual and energiz-
ing kind, is also of great service both in spreading
the knowledge of the Gospel and in building up
Christian character.

Medical work also constitutes a necessary factor
in the great work of evangelizing the world. It
affords access to all classes of people, the highest
as well as the lowest. It disarms hostility and
breaks down prejudices and barriers, thus making
possible the preaching of the Gospel in communi-
ties otherwise inaccessible. Mrs. Isabella Bird
Bishop reports that in Central Asia she found
fanatical Mohammedan tribes who, when asked
13

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

whether they would receive a resident missionary,
invariably replied that they would do so if he were
a doctor.^

Medical missionary work is an incontrovertible
evidence of Christianity and of the power of the
Gospel. The ministry of healing also wins the
heart, and thus gives acceptance and added mean-
ing and power to the message of salvation. Dr.
John Lowe, a leading authority on this subject,
maintains that medical work is " one of the most
powerful, effective, and directly evangelistic agen-
cies which the Church possesses."^ This is true
where the pervading and controlling aim in all the
work is, as it should be, evangelistic. Where this
is not the case, it is a misnomer to speak of the
physician as a medical missionary. The true medi-
cal missionary will constantly commend the Gospel
to his patients by word as well as by deed, and will
be satisfied with no lower aim than that of win-
ning them to Christ.

Notwithstanding the value of other methods,
the proclamation of the Gospel by the living voice
will always hold the pre-eminent place. The
spoken Gospel is absolutely essential to the propa-

' Church Missionary Intelligencer^ April, 1892, pp. 256, 257.
* " Report of the Centenary Conference on the Protestant
Missions of the World " (held at London in 1888), II., 106.

14

DEFINITION .

gation of the Christian faith. The command is,
" Preach the gospel." * " It was God's good pleasure
through the foolishness of the preaching to save
them that believe." ^ " Whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then
shall they call on him in whom they have not be-
lieved ? and how shall they believe in him whom
they have not heard ? and how shall they hear
without a preacher?" 3 The value of medical,
educational, literary and all other forms of mis-
sionary activity, is measured by the extent to
which they prepare the way for the Gospel message,
promote its acceptance, manifest its spirit and
benefits, multiply points of contact with human
souls, and increase the number and efficiency of
those who preach Christ. The preaching of the
crucified and risen Saviour always has been and
always will be the power of God — the most effective
means of leading men into everlasting life.

The evangelization of the world in this genera-
tion should not be regarded as an end in itself.
The Church will not have fulfilled her task when
the Gospel has been preached to all men. Such
evangelization must be followed by the baptism of
converts, by their organization into churches, by
building them up in knowledge, faith and charac^

' St. Mark xvi. 15. ' I Cor. i. 21 ' Rom x. 13, 14,
15

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

ter, and by enlisting and training them for service.
While the missionary enterprise should not be
diverted from the immediate and controlling aim
of preaching the Gospel where Christ has not been
named, and while this work should have the right
of way as the most urgent part of our task, it must
ever be looked upon as but a means to the mighty
and inspiring object of enthroning Christ in indi-
vidual life, in family life, in social life, in national
life, in international relations, in every relation-
ship of mankind ; and, to this end, of planting and
developing in all non-Christian lands self-support-
ing, self-directing and self-propagating churches
which shall become so thoroughly rooted in the
convictions and hearts of the people that if
Christianity were to die out in Europe and
America, it would abide in purity and as a mis-
sionary power in its new homes and would live on
through the centuries.

10

II

THE OBLIGATION TO EVANGELIZE THE
WORLD

It is our duty to evangelize the world because all
men need Christ.

The Christian Scriptures and the careful and
extended observation of earnest men the world
over agree that with respect to the need of salva-
tion all nations and races are alike. The need of
the non-Christian world is indescribably great.
Hundreds of millions are to-day living in igno-
rance and darkness^ steeped in idolatry, supersti-
tion, degradation and corruption. Keflect on the
desolating and cruel evils which are making such
fearful ravages among them. See under what a
burden of sin and sorrow and suffering they live.
Can any candid person doubt the reality of the
awful need after reviewing the masterly, scientific
survey by Dr. Dennis of the social evils of the
non-Christian world ? ^ No one who has seen
the actual conditions can question that they who
are without God are also without hope.

' See " Christian Missions and Social Progress," Vol I.
17

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

The non-Christian religions may be judged by
their fruits. While they furnish some moral prin-
ciples and precepts of value, they do not afford
adequate standards and motives by which rightly
to guide the life, nor power to enable one to take
the step between knowing duty and doing it.
Though there are among the followers of these
religions men of high and noble lives, in the sight
of God all have sinned and stand in need of the
Divine forgiveness and of Christ the Saviour. All
other religions have failed to do what Christianity
has done and is doing as a regenerating power in
the individual and as a transforming force in so-
ciety. It is a significant fact that the thousands
of missionaries scattered throughout the world,
face to face with heathenism and thus in the best
position to make a scientific study of the problem,
bear such a unanimous testimony as to the practi-
cal results of the non-Christian religions as should
forever banish any doubt or reservation regarding
their inadequacy to meet the world's need.

The Scriptures clearly teach that if men are to
be saved they must be saved through Christ. He
alone can deliver them from the power of sin and
its penalty. His death made salvation possible.
The "Word of God sets forth the conditions of sal-
vation. God has chosen to have these conditions
18

THE OBLIGATION

made known through human agency. The universal
capability of men to be benefited by the Gospel,
and the ability of Christ to satisfy men of all races
and conditions, emphasize the duty of Christians
to preach Christ to every creature. The burning
question for every Christian then is. Shall hnn-
dreds of millions of men now living, who need
Christ and are capable of receiving help from Him,
pass away without having even the opportunity to
know Him ?

It is not necessary that we go to the Scriptures,
or to the ends of the earth, to discover our obliga-
tion to the unevangelized. A knowledge of our
own hearts should be sufficient to make plain our
duty. We know our need of Christ. How un-
reasonable, therefore, for us to assume that the
nations living in sin and wretchedness and bond-
age can do without Him whom we so much need
even in the most favored Christian lands.

It is our duty to evangelize the world because we

oive all men the Gospel.

We have a knowledge of Jesus Christ, and to

have this is to incur a responsibility toward every

man who has it not. To have a Saviour who alone

can save from the guilt and power of sin imposes

an obligation of the most serious character. We

19

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOKLD

received the knowledge of the Gospel from others,
but not in order to appropriate it for our own ex-
clusive use. It concerns all men. Christ tasted
death for every man. He wishes the good news
of His salvation made known to every creature.
All nations and races are one in God's intention,
and therefore equally entitled to the Gospel. The
Christians of to-day are simply trustees of the
Gospel and in no sense sole proprietors. Every
Indian, every Chinese, every South Sea Islander
has as good a right to the Gospel as anyone else ;
and, as a Chinese once said to Eobert Stewart, we
break the eighth commandment if we do not take
it to him.^ In the words of Mr. Eugene Stock,
** Bring me the best Buddhist or Mohammedan
in the world, the most virtuous, the most high-
minded, and I think that man has a right to hear of
the tremendous fact that a Divine Person came into
the world to bring blessing to mankind. Whether
he needs it or no, I will not stop to argue. I
think he has a claim upon Christian people to tell
him of that fact." ^ What a wrong against man-
kind to keep the knowledge of the mission of
Christ to men from two-thirds of the race !

Our sense of obligation must be intensified when

' Church Missionary Intelligencer^ Vol. XXI., 254.
* Letter in Archives of the Student Volunteer Movement.
20

THE OBLIGATION

we ask ourselves the question. If we do not preach
Christ where He has not been named, who will ?
''God has 'committed unto us the word of recon-
ciliation,' and from whom shall the heathen now
living ever hear that word, if the Christians of the
present day fail to discharge the debt ? " ^ We know
their need ; we know the only remedy ; we have
access to them ; we are able to go.

The claims of humanity and universal brother-
hood prompt us to make Christ known to those
who live in darkness and in misery. The Golden
Rule by which we profess to live impels us to it.
The example of Christ, who was moved with com-
passion to meet even the bodily hunger of the mul-
titudes, should inspire us to go forth with the
Word of life to the millions who are wandering in
helplessness in the shadow of death.

*' Give me Thy heart, O Christ ! Thy love untold
That I like Thee may pity, like Thee may preach.
For round me spreads on every side a waste
Drearer than that which moved Thy soul to sadness ;
No ray hath pierced this immemorial gloom ;
And scarce these darkened toiling myriads taste
Even a few drops of fleeting earthly gladness,
As they move on, slow, silent, to the tomb." *

J " Memorial of the Student Volunteer Missionary Union
to the Church of Christ in Britain." The Student Volunteer (of
Great Britain), New Series, No. 15, p. 77.

2 Dr. Murray Mitchell, in " Report of the Second Decen-
nial Missionary Conference " (held at Calcutta, 1882-83), 429,
21

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

The evangelization of the "world in this genera-
tion is to Christians no self-imposed task ; it rests
securely upon Divine commandment. The Great
Commission of Christ given by Him in the upper
room in Jerusalem on the night after the resur-
rection/ again a little later on a mountain in
Galilee,^ and yet again, on the Mount of Olives,^
Just before the ascension clearly expresses our
obligation to make Christ known to all men.
While this command was given to the disciples of
Christ living in the first generation of the Chris-
tian era, it was intended as well for all time and
for each Christian in his own time. That the
command was not intended for the Apostles alone
is seen from the promise with which it is linked,
'' Lo I am with you alway, even unto the end of
the age."* The practice of the Church in the
Apostolic Age and Sub- Apostolic Age shows that
the command was regarded as binding not only
upon the Apostles but also upon all Christians.
It was addressed to all in every place and through-
out every generation who should call upon the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is true there is
no express command to evangelize the world in this

' St. Mark xvi. 15 ; St. Luke xxiv. 46, 47.
2 St. Matt, xiviii. 19, 20. * Acts i. 8.

* St. Matt, xxviii. 20.
22

THE OBLIGATION

generation ; bnt, as Mr. Stock has pointed out,
" If we have a general command to make the Gos-
pel known to those who know it not, there seems
no escape from the conclusion that the duty to
make it known to all — that is, all now alive — lies
in the nature of the case." ^ Thus the expression,
the evangelization of the world in this generation,
simply translates Christ's last command into terms
of obligation concerning our own lifetime.

In this command of our Lord we have " a motive
power sufficient to impel disciples always with uni-
form force ; which will survive romance ; which
will outlive excitement ; which is independent of
experiences and emotions ; which can surmount
every difficulty and disappointment ; which burns
steadily in the absence of outward encouragement,
and glows in a blast of persecution ; such a motive
as in its intense and imperishable influence on the
conscience and heart of a Christian shall be irre-
spective at once of his past history, of any pecul-
iarities in his position, and of his interpretation of
prophecy."^ This command has been given to be
obeyed. It is operative until it is repealed. The

' Church Missionary Intelligencer^ New Series, "Vol.
XXT., 254.

'■^ Dr. Ilerdman, in " Proceedings of the General Confer-
ence on Foreign Missions " (held at Mildmay, 1878), 99.
23

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

execution of it is not optional but obligatory. It
awaits fulfilment by a generation that shall have
courage and consecration enough to attempt the
thing commanded. It should move to action all
real Christians ; for, in the words of Archbishop
Whately, " If our religion is not true, we ought
to change it ; if it is true, we are bound to prop-
agate what we believe to be the truth/' ^ ''Why
call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things
which I say ? '' ^ " If ye love me ye will keep my
commandments. " ^

It is our duty to evangelize the world because this
is essential to the best life of the Christian
Church.
If all men need the Gospel, if we owe the Gos-
pel to all men, if Christ has commanded us to
preach the Gospel to every creature, it is unques-
tionably our duty to give all people in our genera-
tion an opportunity to hear the Gospel. To know
our duty and to do it not is sin. Continuance in
the sin of neglect and disobedience necessarily
weakens the life and arrests the growth of tlie
Church. Who can measure the loss of vitality and
power that she has already suffered within our own

■ "Sermons on Various Subjects," 353.
2 St. Luke vi. 46. » st. John xiv. 15.

24

THE OBLIGATION

day from her failure to do all in her power for the
world's evangelization? The Christians of to-day
need some object great enough to engage all the
powers of their minds and hearts. We find just
such an object in the enterprise to make Christ
known to the whole world. This would call out
and utilize the best energies of the Church. It
would help to save her from some of her gravest
perils — ease, selfishness, luxury, materialism and
low ideals. It would necessitate, and therefore
greatly promote, real Christian unity, thus pre-
venting an immense waste of force. It would re-
act favorably on Christian countries. There is no
one thing which would do so much to promote
work on behalf of the cities and neglected country
districts of the home lands as a vast enlargement of
the foreign missionary operations. This is not a
matter of theory ; for history teaches impressively
that the missionary epochs have been the times of
greatest activity and spiritual vigor in the life of
the home Church. So the best spiritual interests*
of America, Great Britain, Germany, Australasia
and other Christian lands are inseparably bound
up with the evangelization of the whole wide
world. The dictates of patriotism, as well as of
loyalty to our Lord, thus call upon us to give our-
selves to the world's evangelization.
25

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

Bnt the most serious and important considera-
tion of all is that the largest manifestation of the
presence of Christ with us as individual Chris-
tians, and with the Church at large, depends upon
our obedience to His command. There is a most
intimate and vital connection between "Go ye
and make disciples of all the nations/' and ^'Lo,
I am with you alway." The gift of the Holy
Spirit is associated in the New Testament with
spreading the knowledge of Christ. More than
that, the power of the Holy Spirit was be-
stowed for the express purpose of equi|)ping
Christians for the work of preaching the Gospel
unto the uttermost parts of the earth, beginning
from Jerusalem. If the Church of to-day,
therefore, would have the power of God come
mightily upon her — and is not this the great
need ? — she will necessarily receive it while in the
pathway of larger obedience to the missionary
command.

The ohUgatio7i to evangelize the world is an ur-
gent one.
Every reason for doing this work of evangeliz-
ing at all demands that it be done not only thor-
oughly but also as speedily as possible. The
present generation is passing away. If we do not
26

THE OBLIGATION

evangelize it, who will ? We dare not say the
next generation will be soon enough. The
Church has too long been in the habit of com-
mitting the heathen to the next generation. " It
is not possible for the coming generation to dis-
charge the duties of the present, whether it re-
spects their repentance, faith, or works ; and to
commit to them our share of preaching Christ
crucified to the heathen, is like committing to
them the love due from us to God and our neigh-
bor. The Lord will require of us that which is
committed to us." *

The present generation is one of unexampled
crisis in all parts of the unevangelized world.
Missionaries from nearly every land urge that, if
the Church fails to do her full duty in our life-
time, not only will multitudes of the present
generation pass away without knowing of Christ,
but the task of our successors to evangelize their
generation will be much more difficult.

Our generation is also one of marvelous oppor-
tunity. The world is better known and more ac-
cessible, its needs more articulate and intelligible,
and our ability to go into all the world with the

' " The Duty of the Present Generation to Evangelize the
World : An Appeal from the Missionaries at the Sandwich
Islands to Their Friends in the United States," 34.
27

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

Gospel is much greater than in any preceding
generation. All this adds to our responsibility.

The forces of evil are not deferring their opera-
tions to the next generation. With world-wide
enterprise and with ceaseless vigor they are seek-
ing to accomplish their deadly work in this gen-
eration. This is true not only of the dire influences
which have been at work in the unevangelized
nations for centuries, but also of those which have
come from so-called Christian lands. By the liquor
traffic, by the opium trade and by the licentious
lives and gambling habits of some of our country-
men we have greatly increased the misery and woe
of the heathen. All non-Christian nations are
being brought under the influences of the material
civilization of the West, and these may easily work
their injury unless controlled by the power of pure
religion. The evangelization of the world in this
generation is not, therefore, merely a matter of
buying up the opportunity, but of helping to neu-
tralize and supplant the effects of the sins of our
own peoples.^

Because of the infinite need of men without
Christ ; because of the possibilities of men of every
race and condition who take Christ as the Lord of

' Professor S. Michelet, " Forhandlingarna vid det femte
nordisk-lutherska missionsmotet," 100, 101.
28

THE OBLIGATION

their lives ; because of the command of our Lord
which has acquired added force as a result of nine-
teen centuries of discovery, of opening of doors, of
experience of the Christian Church ; because of the
shameful neglect of the past ; because of the im-
pending crisis and the urgency of the situation in
all parts of the non-Christian world ; because of the
opportunity for a greatly accelerated movement in
the present ; because of the danger of neglecting to
enter upon a great onward movement ; because of
the constraining memories of the Cross of Christ
and the love wherewith He loved us, it is the sol-
emn duty of the Christians of this generation to
do their utmost to evangelize the world.

Ill

DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF EVANGELIZING
THE WORLD

Difficulties external to the Church on the mission
field.
There are difficulties incident to the number
and distribution of the unevangelized population
of the earth. Approximately one thousand mil-
lions of people are in non- Christian lands. It is
estimated that fully three-fourths of them have
not had, and to-day do not have, an opportunity to
learn of Jesus Christ. Thus the problem relates
to at least one-half of the human race. It in-
volves a number of people equivalent to the popu-
lation of 175 Londons, or of 227 New Yorks. The
difficulty is even greater than this comparison
would indicate ; for, while there are dense masses
of people in the cities of Asia and other unevan-
gelized continents, the great majority of the popu-
lation is scattered throughout countless villages.
In India, for example, nine-tenths of the popula-
tion are living in over 700,000 villages. Accord-
30

DIFFICULTIES

ing to some estimates there are a million villages
in China.

The numbers to be evangelized are not only vast
and widely distributed, but there are still a few
lands such as Tibet, Afghanistan and parts of
Arabia where the missionary cannot work. Even
in some countries where the missionary is allowed,
there are people who are practically inaccessible.
This is true of a constantly decreasing yet still
large number of women in the zenanas of India,
in the harems of Turkey and Persia and in other
lands where women are kept secluded.

The chief political difficulty is the opposition of
governments to the propagation of the Gospel.
This is the case principally in countries where
there is a close connection between the rulers and
the religious or ecclesiastical leaders. In the Rus-
sian Empire it is not possible to teach freely evr.n-
gelical truth. The Turkish government by various
restrictions renders it exceedingly hard to carry on
aggressive work among Moslems. It is difficult to
preach in some places in the native states of India
owing to the nature of the treaties. These exam-
ples suggest a very real obstacle to the work of
evangelization.

Another serious hindrance to the Avork of the
missionaries is the selfish and unjust treatment of
31

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

non-Christian nations and races by nominally
Christian powers. To this day the influence of
the opium wars constitutes a barrier to missionary
progress in China. The forcing of treaty rights
from China, the extension of protectorates over
parts of Africa, and the political efforts of the
Koman Catholics in different parts of the world,
have greatly increased the difficulty of evangelizing
the inhabitants of all these regions. Such actions
have aroused antipathy against all foreigners and
created suspicion in the minds of the people, often
leading them to regard the missionaries as political
agents of the lands from which they come. An-
other difficulty, in a sense political, is the national
feeling found in Japan, which regards the accept-
ance of Christianity as disloyalty to the Emperor.
In India also there is a false patriotism which
identifies love of country with firm adherence to
the ancestral faith.

Missionaries agree that one of the most grievous
obstacles to the spread of the Christian faith is the
example set before the heathen by godless trades-
men, sailors, soldiers, travelers and other foreign-
ers who frequent their cities. Bad as has been the
influence of the traffic in opium, liquor and human
labor carried on by foreigners, the effect of their
unscrupulous and dissolute lives is even worse.
33

DIFFICULTIES

With these men living lives of greed and vice be-
fore the heathen, in utter defiance of every prin-
ciple and teaching of the Christian religion, and
far ontnnmbering the missionaries, is it strange
that it is hard to persuade men of the reality
and power of the Gospel which the missionary
presents ?

The social difficulties in the path of the mis-
sionary are intricate and obstinate. Race pride
and prejudice meet him in every land, making it
hard to win the confidence of the people and to
secure a hearing for the message. The degraded
and depressed condition of woman throughout
the heathen world constitutes a great social prob-
lem. The fact that well-nigh one-half of the un-
evangelized are women, and therefore hedged in
by various customs and laws which make and keep
them ignorant, superstitious and servile, adds
immensely to the task involved in the evangeliza-
tion of the world.

The tyranny of custom and opinion holds most
of the heathen as in a vise. Their customs have
become to them second nature, and their traditions
have gathered weight through long centuries. It
requires a tremendous wrench for them to break
loose, to join themselves to Christ and to comply
with His requirements. In every pagan land and
33

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

among the Jews, to become a Christian results, as
a rule, in social ostracism. Among Moslems, to
take such a step even endangers one's life. The
restraints of family and village organizations in
China and in parts of Japan are very binding.

In India all these social difficulties are summed
up and exemplified in the one word, caste. It
includes those customs, habits and ceremonies
which are so bound up in the lives of the people
as to present an almost complete barrier to inde-
pendent action. It meets the Christian worker
everywhere and baffles him again and again. To
' become a Christian necessitates breaking caste.
This involves giving up one's occupation or means
of livelihood. It also severs his family and other
social relationships and disinherits him. It really
means to give up his little world. The system of
caste has such power of persecution that it is
exceedingly difficult to break from it. All this
has a vital bearing on evangelization ; because
to evangelize India, as well as other countries,
within this generation will require a largely in-
creased number of native Christians.

Not least among the hindrances to evangeliza-
tion are those of an intellectual character. The
fact that multitudes of the unevangelized cannot
read is a serious drawback to the missionary enter-
U

DIFFICULTIES

prise. It is estimated that sixty per cent, of the
people of Brazil are illiterate. lu India only six
women in every thousand can read ; and in China
the proportion is still smaller. Missionaries have
commented on the intellectual dullness of many
savage tribes. We hear much of the slowness of
the masses of China to receive new ideas. Their
minds seem to run in certain grooves from Avhich
it is diflficult to turn them. The intellectual diffi-
culty with the Hindus is due largely to the fact
that their minds are occupied with pantheistic
ideas which make it hard for them to grasp even
the rudiments of the Christian religion. The
message of Christ, therefore, must win its way
in minds already preoccupied with superstitions,
traditions and false ideas. The intellectual pride
and conceit of the scholastic classes of China,
India and other lands is, as everywhere, a high
barrier to the apprehension of Christian truth.

Linguistic difficulties are closely associated with
intellectual difficulties. Although the Gospel
portions of the Scriptures have been translated
into the chief languages and dialects of the world,
there are yet many in connection with which this
work must still be done. It is a gigantic task to
furnish in their own tongues to all races of man-
kind the revelation of God through the Scriptures,
35

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOELD

but it is indispensable to the enterprise of evangel-
ization. There are also many languages still to be
reduced to writing. In most languages of the
non-Christian world there is the further difficulty
that they have no words to express adequately the
meaning of fundamental Christian ideas, for the
simple reason that these ideas are unknown to
heathendom.

Greatest among the external difficulties are
those of a religious and moral character. The fact
that there are hundreds of millions of adherents
of Confucianism, Hinduism, Mohammedanism,
Buddhism and other non-Christian religions, not
to mention those of the corrupt forms of Chris-
tianity, suggests the vast extent of the religious
problem. It is an intensive problem as well. These
religions have existed many centuries, and in some
cases for millenniums. They have become deeply
rooted in the lives of nations and peoples.

Although breaches are being made in the walls
of the non-Christian religions, they still manifest
great power of resistance. The increasing success
of Christianity in all parts of the world has seemed
to arouse them to renewed activity and vigor.
This intensifies the conflict involved in the evan-
gelization of the world in this generation.

At the same time, the educated classes through-
36

DIFFICULTIES

out Asia are fast losing faith in their old religions
as the result of the study of Western science and
philosophy. By having their confidence shaken
in their former faiths they have come to distrust
all religion. It is not easy to secure from them a
careful consideration of the claims of Christ. In-
fidel and rationalistic literature is widely circu-
lated and read in India and Japan, and this helps
to prejudice further the minds of men concerning
Christianity.

The coarse animalism of degraded tribe's and
races affords a soil most inhospitable to the Word
of God. The masses of the heathen are indifferent
to spiritual things. They need Christ ; they are
perishing for lack of knowledge ; but they are not
thirsting to know Him. They are so engrossed
with material things that it is hard to get them to
heed the Gospel call.

A fundamental lack throughout the non-Chris-
tian and Moslem world is the want of a sense of sin.
They have no true conception of it. The prevail-
ing belief that they are in the hands of fate tends
to deaden the feeling of personal responsibility.
Their moral sense is dull. The conscience does
not respond to ordinary appeals. How great the
task to get such people to feel any concern about
their sins, without which they will not recognize
37

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOELD

their need of Christ the Saviour ! Equally serious
is the prevailing lack among them of the concep-
tion of a personal, holy God and a sense of their
responsibility to Him. Often it will require long
teaching before they can be led to grasp such con-
ceptions.

The supreme obstacle to the understanding of
the Gospel is the fact of sin. Sin underlies all
else that opposes. It has benumbed the spiritual
sensibilities of the heathen, seared their con-
sciences, hardened their hearts, and made their
ears dull of hearing. God only can awaken them.
None awake without His call.

Difficulties within the Church oti the mission
field.

(1) Of the native Christians. On nearly every
mission field the poverty of the native Christians
is a real obstacle to the work of evangelization.
It prompts them to covetousness, and sometimes
leads them to enter Christian service from purely
mercenary motives. On the other hand it pre-
vents the more rapid enlargement of the native
evangelizing agencies.

While the life of the native Church compares
very favorably with that of the Church in Chris-
tian lands, nevertheless its lack of spirituality is,
38

DIFFICULTIES

as in Christian lands, a serious drawback to ag-
gressive, evangelistic activity. This condition is
due to the worldliness and religious indiiference
which characterize the minds of many of the
members. In some fields so many have come into
the Church from political or commercial reasons,
without a genuine change of heart, that the
spiritual standard is very low. Few among the
native Christians know by experience what it is
to be filled with the Holy Spirit. There is often,
therefore, a want of readiness for service, and a
weakness in testimony.

The native Church in most countries is wanting
in independence and in power of initiative. In
other fields, as in parts of Christendom, there is
little zeal for the conversion of others. If the
Gospel is to be preached to all men in our day,
the spirit of missions must come upon the native
Christians.

It is difficult to get a sufficient number of
earnest and deeply spiritual native leaders.
This is the case on every mission field, and is
due on the one hand to the counter attractions
of commercial pursuits and government service,
and on the other to lack of spirituality. There
is no greater need than that of self - denying,
courageous, steadfast native leaders in each
39

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

heathen land — men of such real personality and
depth of religions experience as to be able to
arouse and to mold the native Church and to lead
its members in the work of aggressive evangelism.

(2) Of the missionaries. The missionaries have
some special personal difficulties. In several
countries they must face physical peril which
comes from dangerous and deadly climates and
from unhealthful sanitary conditions. In some
fields, especially in tropical Africa, the rate of
mortality among the foreign workers is very high.

The missionary under certain conditions finds
it hard also to come into close touch with the
life of the native Christians. There is more or
less of a gulf between the Occidental and the
Oriental, even though both be Christians. The
difference in clothing, food, houses, social cus-
toms, education, language and methods of thought
all make the chasm more difficult to bridge.
Both missionaries and native Christians frequently
have to fight against mutual distrust and sus-
picion, and also against temptations to exclu-
siveness and a sense of superiority. Wherever
such barriers are allowed to stand, they not only
interfere with helpful social intercourse, but also
prevent unity in Christian service.

Attention has already been directed to the ex-
40

DIFFICULTIES

ternal aspect of the linguistic difficulty. It has
also a personal aspect. The efficiency of the
missionary, taking spiritual qualifications for
granted, will be in direct proportion to his
knowledge of the language of the people among
whom he labors and his ability to use it. The
pathway both to mind g,nd heart of the people
is through their mother tongue. It is not easy
to master any language ; it is a tremendous task
to get a thorough hold on such languages as the
Arabic, Chinese and Japanese. What an under-
taking, then, to translate the Gospel into the
hundreds of languages and dialects which do not
to-day give expression to the glorious message.
Professor Warneck has expressed the fear also that
some of the translations already made are at the
best but provisional, because the translators lacked
the necessary scientific qualifications.^ To do such
work in a manner faithful to the meaning which
the missionary wishes to convey, and at the same
time faithful to the idioms of the new language,
is difficult indeed. It is hard to translate Chris-
tian ideas into the languages of the heathen so as
to convey our exact meaning, because the words
we are obliged to use often have idolatrous or
heathen associations or applications. The mis-
' "Missions and Culture," 117, 118.
41

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOELD

sionary by oral instruction must patiently explain
the Gospel until new ideas are associated with the
words. Until this is done, even though the
heathen be able to read the Scrij)tures, they will
be unable to grasp the real meaning.

Missionaries the world over unite in saying
that their chief battle ground is in their own
hearts, and that their greatest difficulty is that of
preserving a triumphant and an ever-expanding
spiritual life. While this is true also of Christian
workers on the home fields, the conflict is possibly
harder on the mission field than at home. The
reasons are that heathenism exerts such a chilling
and depressing influence on the spiritual life, and
that the missionary is so largely cut off from in-
timate association with deeply spiritual people,
from conventions and conferences, and from other
uplifting and inspiring influences which charac-
terize a society dominated by Christian ideas and
ideals.
Difficulties within the Church in Christian lands.

Misconceptions and scepticism among Chris-
tians at home regarding the necessity and obliga-
tion to evangelize the world constitute a primary
difficulty in the way of its accomjjlishment. The
number of those who believe that the world ought
to be evangelized is as yet comparatively small.
42

DIFFICULTIES

Until a sufficient number of Christians believe
that it is the duty of the members of the Church
to evangelize the world it will not be done. Many
fail to regard Christ's command as imperative, and
look on the promotion of the enterprise of evan-
gelization as optional so far as they are concerned.
The vast majority of the membership of the Church
have yet to learn that the taking of a knowledge of
Christ to the Avhole world without needless delay
is a most pressing duty.

Underlying this lack of appreciation of the
urgency of the Avork is a far too prevalent scepti-
cism as to the real necessity of preaching Christ to
all men. Very many Christians entertain the be-
lief that Christianity is not the absolute religion ;
that other religions have saving power ; that the
nations can get along without Christ. This fun-
damental failure to realize that without Christ
these multitudes are without hojje necessarily
weakens the sense of personal responsibility and
cuts the nerve of missions.

The want of unity among different branches of
the Church at home, as a result of denomina-
tional pride, jealousy and misunderstandings, is a
serious hindrance to the work on the mission field. ^

' Dr. Griffith John, letter in Archives of the Student Volun-
teer Movement.

43

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

It results in overlapping, friction and waste of
force. At times it has prevented the missionaries
from making an equitable division of the unoccu-
pied regions, and therefore has delayed the world-
wide proclamation of the Gospel.

The invasion of the Church by the world is a
menace to the extension of Christ's Kingdom. In
all ages conformity to the world by Christians has
resulted in a lack of spiritual life and a consequent
lack of spiritual vision and enterprise. A secular-
ized or self-centered Church can never evangelize
the world.

The fundamental difficulty on the home field is
the lack of missionary pastors. If the leader of a
congregation is ignorant or indifferent or sceptical
concerning the need and obligation of the Church
to evangelize the world it will be strange if the
same may not be said of the large majority of the
members. A task so vast can be achieved only by
a Church filled with the spirit of missions. There-
fore, if we are to have congregations abounding in
faith, self-sacrifice, prayer and aggressive zeal, we
must have pastors who have caught the vision of
a world evangelized, and whose plans, utterances,
prayers and activities are under the commanding
influence of that vision.

44

DIFFICULTIES

Some considerations suggested by the difficulties
in the way of the evangelization of the world.

It should be observed that by no means all
of the difficulties given in the foregoing outline
apply to any one mission field, still less to the
unevangelized world as a whole. Certain lands,
races and religions present a stronger combination
of obstacles than others. Here and there are cita-
dels of mighty strength which will yield only to
siege work. On the other hand there are doors of
access to every race and religion and to nearly
every nation, so that it is possible to press forward
on every hand the work of evangelization.

These difficulties, however, cannot be ignored.
They must be reckoned with. There is nothing
to be gained by deceiving ourselves as to their
existence, number and greatness. They should be
looked at with clear eye, and their strength should
be sanely estimated. The maxim of Moltke,
" Erst wag's dann wag's " — First deliberate,
then dare — suggests the duty of every Christian
with reference to the vast and arduous under-
taking of world-wide evangelization within the
generation.

Not one of these difficulties is insuperable.
Obstacles similar, or others equally great, already
45

, THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

have been overcome. Think of the difficulties
which have been removed within the past half
century ! God has opened up within fifty years
the most populous regions of the globe, including
some which in the last generation were inaccessible.
Railway lines have been extended all over Southern
Asia. Steamboats are now found on lakes and
rivers in Central Africa, and railways are penetrat-
ing that continent from every direction. China
has at last opened widely to the railway and to
steam navigation. Even the exclusive Province
of Hunan, where settled mission work was im-
possible five years ago, is now the scene of the
fruitful evangelistic labors of several missionary
societies.

The political changes which have taken place
within the memory of men now living have been
equally remarkable. Nearly the whole Roman
Catholic world has been opened to Protestant
workers within fifty years. It is only forty
years since Japan began to admit foreign mis-
sionaries, and now there are no restrictions to
the preaching of the Gospel throughout the en-
tire Empire. A little over a generation ago all
China was closed to outsiders save five port cities.
Now evangelists can proclaim Christ in every
corner of the land. Within a generation Africa
46

DIFFICULTIES

has been parceled out among the nations of
Western Europe, Aggressive missionary opera-
tions are now carried on in all the great divis-
ions of that continent. It is a remarkable fact
that Kussia, while not allowing Protestants to
carry on an active preaching propaganda, affords
to the British and Foreign Bible Society every
facility for the circulation of the New Testament.
The printed Gospel is finding its way even into
Afghanistan and Tibet. Thus within the half
century over 700,000,000 people have been made
accessible to the missionary. In the light of
these developments shall we designate any fields
as inaccessible ? " Has God ever declared them
so ? Has the Christian Church faithfully tried
and found them so ? Are we in this age of the
world justified in acknowledging that it is be-
yond the power and resource of our Christianity
to reach them ?"^

Hundreds of women missionaries are now at
work among the women of India, the Turkish
Empire and other lands, although two generations
ago this was regarded as impossible.

Henry Martyn when in India wrote, "How
shall it ever be possible to convince a Hindu or
Brahmin of anything ? . . . Truly, if ever I

' Dr. Dennis, in " Missions at Home and Abroad," 2|3,
47

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOELD

see a Hindu a real believer in Jesus, I shall see
something more nearly approaching the resurrec-
tion of a dead body than anything I have yet
seen."^ To-day there are in the Indian Church
hundreds of high-caste Hindu converts. That
work for Moslems is hopeless, as some church
leaders insisted less than a generation ago, is
abundantly disproved by the recent history of mis-
sions in Sumatra, the Punjab, Persia, Arabia and
Northern Africa. All people are capable of re-
ceiving the Gospel. Some would argue that this
is not true, — that there are those whose minds and
hearts are so darkened, hardened and debased that
they are incapable of understanding its message to
them and not susceptible to its blessed and mighty
influence. But the history of missions in every
land totally refutes this idea. Is it not a fact of
large meaning and encouragement that in all parts
of the world missions have won remarkable tri-
umphs among the most benighted and degraded ?
The duty of the Church then, as Duff urged, is to
"go with the blessed Gospel, and proclaim it to
all people who can be induced to listen to it ; and
where God has His elect, there the soul will be
reached." 2 From the days of the Apostles the

' Dr. George Smith, " Henry Martyn," 224.

* " Proceedings of the Union Missionary Convention," 34.

48

DIFFICULTIES

uplifted Christ and the energizing Holy Spirit
have proved their ability so to transform men that
" where sin abounded, grace did abound more ex-
ceedingly." '

The greatest hindrances to the evangelization
of the world are those within the Church. Dr.
Griffith John, who has been at work in China for
forty-five years, says : " I do not consider the
difficulties external to the Church of vital impor-
tance. The difficulties within the Church at
home are the ones that trouble me." ^ Dr. Chauncy
Goodrich, who has labored in China for thirty-five
years, writes : "I count the difficulties of the
Chinese language and Chinese customs, of race
prejudice and dense ignorance, of political exclu-
sion and bigoted pride, all as nothing before a
Church filled with the Spirit of the Great Com-
mission."^ These opinions seem to reflect the
thought of the ablest missionaries in all parts of
the world. It is a significant fact, and should do
much to banish scepticism from the minds of
Christians on the home fields.

There is a tendency among many Christians
unduly to magnify difficulties, and to minimize the

' Rom. V. 20.

2 Letter in Archives of the Student Volunteer Movement.

*Ibid.

49

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

Providential opportunities, the promises of God
and the resources of witnesses and ambassadors for
Jesus Christ. '^Like the ten spies we look at
God through the human difficulties and the human
magnitude of the work, instead of looking at the
difficulties through God and counting on His
supernatural and divine power always commensu-
rate with the responsibility He gives us."^

Difficulties are not without their advantages.
They are not to unnerve us. They are not to be
regarded simply as subjects for discussion nor as
grounds for scepticism and pessimism. They are
not to cause inaction, but rather to intensify ac-
tivity. They were made to be overcome. They
are to call forth the best that is in Christians.
Above all, they are to create profound distrust in
human plans and energy and to drive us to God.
" Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh : is
there anything too hard for me ? " ^ Until we find
some difficulty which is too hard for Almighty
God we have no right to be discouraged. We
must always take into account God Himself and
the omnipotent, irresistible forces which He has
placed at our disposal. " The things which are
impossible with men are possible with God."^

' Mr. George Sherwood Eddy, letter in Archives of the Stu-
dent Volunteer Movement.

'^ Jer, xxsii. 27. » St. Luke xviii. 27.

60

IV

THE POSSIBILITY OF EVANGELIZING THE
WORLD IN THIS GENERATION IN VIEW OF
THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE FIRST GEN-
ERATION OF CHRISTIANS

One of the most distinguishing characteristics of
early Christianity was the wide propagation of the
Gospel. The age of the Apostles was pre-emi-
nently a missionary age. The first generation of
Christians did more to accomplish the evangeliza-
tion of the accessible world than has any succeed-
ing generation. This first generation may be re-
garded as the period extending from the Day of c\ji^)^A
Pentecost to the destruction of Jerusalem, or from
30 A.D. to 70 A.D. The Acts of the Apostles
contains the principal record of the achievements
of the Christians during this period. It describes
in bold outline the progress of Christianity from
its beginnings at Jerusalem, the capital of the
Jewish world, to its establishment at Eome, the
capital of the heathen world. One of its objects
is to show how the early Christians labored to ex-
51

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

tend Christ's Kingdom. Several of the Epistles
also throw valuable light on the nature and extent
of the evangelistic work of the time. The Apos-
tolic Church has furnished many helpful lessons
to the Christians of all subsequent generations ;
but in no respect is its example more instructive
and more inspiring than in what it teaches con-
cerning world-wide evangelization.

The field of the Christian operations of the first
generation, so far as authentic records inform us,
was limited practically to the Eoman Empire.
That Empire reached from Scotland to the Afri-
can deserts and to the cataracts of the Nile ; and
from the Atlantic to the valley of the Euphrates.
It stretched from East to West a distance of over
three thousand miles. It comprised Italy, the
ruling state, and thirty-five provinces of which
three were insular, seven were in Asia, five in Af-
rica and twenty in Europe. It bound together
peoples difi'ering widely in civilization as well
as in race. The estimates of the population
range from eighty to one hundred and twenty
millions.

The social, moral and religious condition of the

Empire in the first century was most distressing,

notwithstanding extenuating facts which might be

given. According to Gibbon, not less than one-

52

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS

half the population were slaves.^ There was gen-
eral contempt for labor. Extravagance and luxury
were carried to unexampled extremes. Society
was thoroughly demoralized. Marriage had fallen
into decay, and polygamy, concubinage and infan-
ticide were sanctioned by leading men. The worst
forms of vice and pollution were frightfully preva-
lent. There was a general passion for cruel games.
The old mythological religions had lost their hold
on the intelligent classes. Philosophy had run into
materialism, scepticism and pessimism. The as-
sociations called up by such names as Tiberius,
Gains, Claudius and Nero ; the revelations of the
recent excavations of the cities of Italy and the
Levant ; the records of Tacitus, Seneca, Juvenal
and other classical writers, all confirm the truth-
fulness of St. Paul's description in the first chap-
ter of Eomans of the terrible state of the heathen
world in his day. Into such a society the early
Christians went forth to proclaim the Gospel. In
no part of the world to-day is Christ more needed
than He was throughout the Koman Empire in the
days of the Apostles.

There were several favoring circumstances which
helped to make possible the wide and rapid procla-

' " The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Emi
pire," I., 52.

63

THE EVANGELIZATION OP THE WOELD

mation of the Gospel. Commercial enterprise,
Eoman law and government, the imperial system
of roads and other communications, and the gen-
eral use of the Latin and Greek languages, had so
closely united all parts of the Empire as to facili-
tate the propagation of ideas and impulses. Pro-
fessor Ramsay says : " Travelling was more highly
developed, and the dividing power of distance was
weaker, under the Empire than at any other time
before or since, until we come down to the present
century." ^ Although Greek philosophy had shown
its inability to satisfy the mind and heart, it never-
theless did help to prepare some minds for the
clearer apprehension of the Christian faith.

The prevalence of the Greek language, and the
fact that the Septuagint version of the Old Testa-
ment was widely disseminated, enabled the Apos-
tles to make themselves understood in every city.
In nearly every large center of population there
was a Jewish community, and also a synagogue in
which the Old Testament Scriptures were ex-
pounded. Besides this there were in all these
places Jewish proselytes who had been gathered
from the heathen and who proved to be the most
susceptible hearers of the Gospel. Thus in a sense
"every synagogue was a mission-station of mono-

> " St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen," 352.
54

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS

tlieism, and furnished the Apostles an admirable
place and a natural introduction for their preach-
ing of Jesus Christ as the fulfiller of the law and
the prophets."^

The first generation of Christians accomplished
wonders toward the evangelization of the world in
their day. This is clear, judging even from the
comparatively meager Scrij^ture records, and it is
enforced by several considerations. In the first
place, the different cities, districts and provinces
reached by the early Christians with the Gospel
suggests the vast extent of their work. Among
the multitude present in Jerusalem on the Day of
Pentecost there were " Parthians and Medes and
Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, in
Judsea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, in
Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and the parts
of Libya about Cyrene, and sojourners from
Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Ara-
bians." ^ It is not improbable that men from nearly
all these regions were among the thousands con-
verted at the time of St. Peter's sermon, and that
through their instrumentality the Gospel was car-
ried to different and widely separated parts of the
Empire, and even beyond its confines.^

' Schaff, "History of the Christian Church," I., 87.
'Acts ii. 9-11. ^Rev. Chalmers Martin, "Apostolic

and Modern Missions," 195.

55

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

The persecntion in connection with the work of
Stephen scattered the disciples ''abroad through-
out the regions of Judasa and Samaria/'^ where
they carried on an active evangelistic campaign.
We then have record of the work of evangeliza-
tion in the city and villages of Samaria by Philip,
St. Peter, and St. John, of the visits of Philip,
and later of St, Peter, to a number of cities in
Judaea. The account of St. Luke also shows
that the persecuted disciples traveled to Phoe-
nicia, Antioch, Damascus and Cyprus, preaching
Christ.

With two or three exceptions the Gospel thus
far had been proclaimed to Jews and Jewish prose-
lytes. Then came the conversion of St. Paul, the
great apostle to the Gentiles. After spending a
few years at work in Cilicia and Syria, chiefly in
Tarsus and Antioch, he launched out on his great
missionary career, which continued for over ten
years. He made three extensive missionary tours,
which carried him over a number of the provinces
of the Empire. He evangelized the four prov-
inces, Galatia, Asia, Macedonia and Achaia, in all
of which he established churches which continued
to send out light for centuries. Of his four years
in captivity two were spent in Home, and were

' Acts viii. 2.
56

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE EARLY CHEISTIANS

filled with evangelistic labors. It is possible also
that he carried out his expressed desire and inten-
tion to visit Spain.

The Scriptures tell us little regarding the later
work of the other Apostles. St. Peter probably
devoted himself to work among the Jews in differ-
ent parts of the Empire. The tradition is quite
generally accepted that he preached and suffered
martyrdom in Rome. Beyond reasonable doubt
St. John lived and worked for years in Ephesus.
Although the numerous traditions about the other
Apostles are not well supported, we may be cer-
tain that they were not idle nor silent with refer-
ence to the mission of Christ to men.^ That other
Apostles preached in pagan and barbarous nations
" is rendered likely by the extreme antiquity and
the marked Judgeo-Christian character of Churches
which still exist in Persia, India, Egypt, and
Abyssynia."^ Moreover, in addition to St. Paul
and the Twelve, there must have been very many
other Christians from among the hundreds who
saw Christ after His resurrection, not to mention
the ever-increasing multitude of believers from the
Day of Pentecost onward, who, filled with the

1 Uhlhorn, '' The Conflict of Christianity with Heathen-
ism," 220.

* Farrar, " The Early Days of Christianity," 57.
57

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

same missionary spirit as Stephen, Philip, Barna-
bas and St. Paul, devoted their energies to preach-
ing the Gospel in the Roman Empire and also in
the outlying heathen lands.

The Scripture references to the results of the
preaching of the Apostles are also suggestive both
of the magnitude and of the thoroughness of their
work of evangelization. After St. Peter's sermon
on the Day of Pentecost, '-'there were added unto
them in that day about three thousand souls." ^
During the period which followed, " the Lord added
to them day by day those that were being saved." ^
St. Peter's sermon in Solomon's porch resulted in
many conversions, ''and the number of the men
came to be about five thousand." ^ As a result of
later work by the Apostles, " believers were the
more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men
and women." ^ After the period of persecution
which followed the death of Stephen, " the church
throughout all Judsea and Galilee and Samaria
had peace, being edified ; and . . . was multi-
plied."^ When Christians of Cyprus and Cyrene
came to Antioch and preached the Gospel to the
Greeks, " a great number that believed turned
unto the Lord ; " ^ and later under the preaching

•Acts ii. 41. '^ Acts ii.'47. ^Actsiv. 4.

* Acts V. 14. s^cts ix. 31. « Acts xi. 21.

58

ACHIEVEMENTS OP THE EARLY CHRISTIANS

of Barnabas in the same city, " mnch people was
added nnto the Lord." ^

In Pisidian Antioch also, when St. Paul and Bar-
nabas were on the first missionary jonrney, it is said
that " almost the whole city was gathered together
to hear the word of God,"^ that of the Gentiles
"as many as were ordained to eternal life be-
lieved," ^ and that " the word of the Lord was spread
abroad throughout all the region."* In Iconium
these two missionaries ''so spake, that a great
multitude both of Jews and of Greeks believed." ^
When St. Paul next went over the ground covered
on his first journey the churches were not only
" strengthened in the faith," ^ but also " increased
in number daily."'' At Thessalonica St. Paul
preached Christ for three Sabbaths and among
those who believed were " devout Greeks a great
multitude."^ In Beroea "many of them [Jews]
therefore believed ; also of the Greek women of
honourable estate, and of men, not a few."^ Even
at Athens " certain men clave unto him [St. Paul],
and believed."'"

In Corinth the Lord spake to St. Paul by a vi-
sion and assured him, " I have much people in this

' Acts xi. 24. ^ Acts xiii. 44. ^ Acts xiii. 48.

* Acts xiii. 49. ^ Acts xiv. 1. ^ Acts xvi. 5.

■" Acts xvi. 5. * Acts xvii. 4. ^ Acts xvii. 12.

•0 Acts xvii. 34.

59

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

citj."^ It is also said that as a result of St. Paul's
preaching "many of the Corinthians hearing be-
lieved, and were baptized."^ His few years' work
in Ephesus was so successful "that all they which
dwelt in [the province of] Asia heard the word of
the Lord, both Jews and Greeks." ^ Even before
St. Paul visited Eome he could write the Chris-
tians there saying, " Your faith is proclaimed
throughout the whole world."* In the same let-
ter he was also able to state that " from Jerusalem,
and round about even unto Illyricum [on the
shores of the Adriatic] , I have fully preached the
gospel of Christ."^ While in Rome he writes to
the Philippians, " my bonds became manifest in
Christ throughout the whole prsetorian guard, and
to all the rest." ^ Still more striking are the state-
ments made in writing to the Colossians. He re-
minds them of what they had heard " in the word
of the truth of the gospel, which is come unto you ;
even as it is also in all the world bearing fruit and
increasing, as it doth in you also." ' He likewise
exhorts them to hold to the Gospel " which was
preached in all creation under heaven." ^ We may
safely infer from the foregoing passages, not only

' Acts xviii. 10. "^ Acts xviii. 8. ^ Acts xix. 10.
'' Rom. i. 8. 5 Rom. xv. 19. « Phil. i. 13.

'Col. i. 5, 6. 'Col. i. 23.

60

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS

that Christianity had been very rapidly and widely
diffused, but also that it had won a great many
adherents.

The evangelistic achievements of the early
Christians were remarkable, not merely when
viewed territorially and numerically, but also when
we consider the various classes in society who were
reached by their preaching. Gibbon, in giving
voice to the charge of those hostile to Christianity,
says that the body of its early adherents was "al-
most entirely composed of the dregs of the pop-
ulace— of peasants and mechanics, of boys and
women, of beggars and slaves."^ This is mislead-
ing ; for while the majority of the Christians of
the first generation belonged to people of inferior
rank, there were many who came from the middle
and upper classes. In fact Professor Eamsay main-
tains that Christianity "spread at first among the
educated more rapidly than among the unedu-
cated ; " ^ and points out in another place how " the
working and thinking classes, with the students,
if not the professors, at the universities, were at-
tracted to the new teaching ; and it spread among
them with a rapidity that seemed to many modern

1 " The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire," I., 584.

'^ '* The Church in the Roman Empire," 57.
61

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

critics incredible and fabulous, till it was justi-
fied by recent discoveries." ^
I >/ A disproportionately large number of the con-

\ y p V verts mentioned in the Scriptures belonged to the
better strata of the Roman population. Men and
women who possessed property were reached, such
as Barnabas of Cyprus, Ananias, Lydia and the
mother of John Mark. The spread of Christianity

f ^ among the rich may be inferred also from the
» various references to them in the Epistles. Not
only did slaves become Christians but also mas-
ters. Men of education were won to Christ, — as
St. Paul, Crispus, and "a great company of the
priests "2 in Jerusalem who were " obedient to the
faith." ^ Not a few of the converts were men high
in political or social station, among whom we find
Cornelius, Manaen, the foster brother or compan-
ion of Herod the Tetrarch, and the proconsul,
Sergius Paulus. Festus, Agrippa and members of
the highest court in Rome, although they did not
become Christians, had the Gospel preached to
them. Among the converts in Thessalonica were
" chief women not a few," ^ and in Beroea " Greek
women of honourable estate."^ Professor Har-

' " St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen," 134.

^ Acts vi. 7. ^ Acts vi. 7.

* Acts xvii. 4. *Acts xvii. 12.

62

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS

nack in a most suggestive article shows how Chris-
tianity early made its way into the imperial fam-
ily. ''What a change! Between fifty and sixty
years after Christianity reached Rome, a daughter
of the Emperor [Vespasian] embraces the faith." ^
The persecution of the Christians in the first
century bears testimony to the rapid spread of
Christianity. The Neronian persecution, the first
bloody encounter with the Roman state, occurred
in A.D. 64 ; and in connection with it there were
"an immense number" of martyrs.^ Milman's
inference seems fair that " the people would not
have consented to receive them [the Christians]
as atoning victims for the dreadful disaster of the
great conflagration ; nor would the reckless tyr-
anny of the emperor have condescended to select
them as sacrificial offerings to appease the popular
fury, unless they had been numerous, far above
contempt, and already looked upon with a jealous
eye. Nor is it less clear, that, even to the blind
discernment of popular indignation and imperial
cruelty, the Christians were by this time distin-
guished from the Jews."^ Although the next im-
perial persecution was that of Domitian about the

' Princeton Review^ July, 1878, p. 269.

^Tacitus, "Anal." XV., 44.

»" The History of Christianity," I., 466.

6a

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

end of the first century, there was a constant
proscription of Christians between the two per-
secutions.

There are certain facts about the Christians in
the second generation which clearly indicate that
a great work of evangelism was carried on in the
first generation. When we consider, for example,
the multitude who suffered martyrdom in the sec-
ond generation we are safe in assuming that there
had been a wide-spread and thorough evangeliza-
tion of the preceding generation. The discover-
ies of De Rossi and others indicating that millions
of Christians were buried in the catacombs near
Eome within eight or ten generations following the
first century, afford reason to believe that Chris-
tianity manifested a mighty power of propagation
in the Apostolic Age.

The fierce literary attacks which the Christian
religion called forth in the second century, as well
as the powerful apologies in its defence, afford ad-
ditional evidence that the missionary achievements
of the first and second generations must have been
remarkable. Pliny the younger, who lived dur-
ing the generation following the Apostles, in a let-
ter to the Emperor written in the year 112 while
he was proconsul of Bithynia and Pontus, observed
that Christianity had spread throughout his prov-
64

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS

ince, not ouly in the cities but also in the villages
and country districts, that the pagan rites were be-
ing interrupted, and that the temples were almost
deserted.^ If this could be said so early and of such
a distant province, is it not reasonable to assume
that the Gospel must have been widely preached in
the preceding generation ? Gibbon thought that
Justin Martyr exaggerated when in the second cen-
tury he declared : " For there is not one single race
of men, whether barbarians, or Greeks, or what-
ever they may be called, nomads, or vagrants, or
herdsmen dwelling in tents, among whom prayers
and giving of thanks are not offered through the
name of the Crucified Jesus." ^ However, Pro-
fessor Orr, commenting on Gibbon's criticism,
justly says: '' If one reflects that Justin does not
claim that all the races or tribes he speaks of had
been converted to the Gospel, or were even pre-
ponderatingly Christian, but only that the Gospel
had reached them, and had won from each its
tribute of believers, the exaggeration need not be
so great after all."^

What the early Christians achieved seems very

' Lightfoot, " Ignatius," I., 50-53.
* " Dial, cum Tryph.^'" C. 117; also Gibbon, I., 582.
^"Neglected Factors in the Study of the Early Progress
of Christianity," 47.

65

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOELD

remarkable considering the fact that at the time
of the ascension of Christ the whole number of
believers did not exceed a few hundreds, and that
the early Church had to contend with practically
every difficulty which confronts the Church to-
day. What generation of Christians has met vic-
toriously such a combination of difficulties and
endured such sufferings ? The social obstacles in
, the way of the spread of the Christian faith were
great. Uhlhorn asserts that " whoever became a
Christian was compelled to renounce not only im-
memorial prejudices, but usually, also, father and
mother, brothers and sisters, friends and rela-
tives, place and employment/'^ Attention has
already been called to the terribly corrupt moral
condition of the world and the prevalence and
vigor of the forces of evil. Superstition still ex-
ercised great power over the minds of the people.
Polytheism everywhere presented a strong barrier
to Christianity. Judaism with its exacting legal-
ism, its exaltation of rites and ceremonies and its
intense caste feeling was a source of constant diffi-
culty to the missionaries. False teachers and se-
ducers were also a hindrance to the progress of
the Gospel. The graphic catalogue of St. PauFs
perils and woes given in his second letter to the
' " The Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism," 168.

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS

Corinthians speaks volumes for the difficulties
which beset the Apostles in their work.

In many respects the most serious difficulty was
the opposition of the government. Although
Christianity violated no statute law of the empire,
the Christians were often persecuted in virtue of
the police authority of the magistrates which au-
thorized them to oppose any movement threatening
the peace or welfare of the community. There
are good grounds for the belief that by A.D. 64
the government distinguished the Christians from
the Jews and persecution became its policy. The
fierce and persistent persecutions which began so
soon and continued for generations were inevita-
ble. "^ Never in the whole course of human his-
tory have two so unequal powers stood opposed
to each other as ancient heathenism and early
Christianity, the Eoman State and the Chris-
tian Church."^

What was the secret of the achievements of the
early Christians in their efforts to evangelize the
world ? The favoring external circumstances do
not furnish an adequate explanation. The under-
lying reasons may be discovered by examining
more closely the practice and equipment of the

'Uhlhorn, "The Conflict of Christianity with Heathen-
ism," 150.

6?

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

Christians of the Apostolic Age. In the first
place, the leaders of the Church seem to have had
the definite aim to get the Gospel preached as
widely as possible within their day. Only in this
way can the wide distribution and marked activity
and urgency of the workers be explained.

Not only the Apostles but Christians of all
classes recognized their responsibility for the ex-
tension of Christ's Kingdom and engaged in the
work of proclaiming the Gospel. The Apostles
welcomed all as helpers whether laymen or minis-
ters, men or women. Only three of the Apostles
are mentioned in the Acts after Pentecost, whereas
at least five laymen became prominent in the mis-
sionary enterprise. "We are told that after the dis-
persion the disciples, save the Apostles, went about
preaching the word. The whole Church was filled
with enthusiasm for the work. Gibbon places first
among the causes for the rapid spread of Christian-
ity the fact that " it became the most sacred duty of
a new convert to diffuse among his friends the in-
estimable blessing which he had received.'' ^ Thus
the duty of the evangelization of the world was not
the burden of the leaders of the Church alone, but
every disciple who felt the power of the Spirit

' " The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire," I , 513

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS

of God had as a great desire and controlling object
of life the salvation of his fellow men.

The early Christians preached the Gospel at
every opportunity and in all places. Lightfoot
observes, ''A marvelous activity [was awakened]
among the disciples of the new faith. "^ This
activity was not limited to stated times and places.
Every Christian became an active witness within
the sphere of his daily calling. For example,
traveling craftsmen and traders, like Aquila and
Priscilla, went about teaching the faith. Fried-
lander says that " the messengers of the new doc-
trine visited not only cities, but also villages and
farms ; nay, did not shun to force themselves be-
tween those related by blood." ^ Professor Mc-
Giffert expresses the opinion that " it was through
this quiet hand-to-hand work that he [St. Paul]
doubtless accomplished most, and not through
public preaching, whether in synagogues or else-
where."^ A mechanic would tell the story of
what Christ had done for him to a member of the
same trade, one slave to his fellow-slave, one mem-
ber of the family to another. This constant col-
lision of individual souls became the most effec-

« " Philippians," .S2, 33.
" " Sittengeschichte Roms," III., 517.
* " A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age," 255.
69

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

tive means for the diffusion of tlie knowledge
of Christ.

The Christians of the first generation kept
pressing into the nnevangelized regions. It was
apparently the rule to enter open doors. St. Paul
in writing to the Eomans was able to say that he
had striven — or had been ambitious — to preach the
Gospel where Christ was not named. Even when
he announced his plan to visit Rome where the
Gospel had already been planted, he was careful
to point out that Spain was the objective of his
journey. The Thessalonian Church earned the
praise of being a model to all the believers in
Macedonia and Achaia, because from them had
sounded out the word of the Lord through all the
region beyond. The Church as a whole seemed
to have an ambition to proclaim the Gospel in the
whole world.

The leaders centered their energies on the stra-
tegic points of the Roman Empire — the great cities.
Christianity became strongly established in the
towns before it spread widely through the country
districts. St. Paul in particular, with character-
istic statesmanship, devoted himself largely to the
cities. Not to mention the years which he gave
to Antioch and Tarsus, we find him spending
eighteen months at Corinth, two years at Rome,
70

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS

three years at Ephesus, and probably from six
weeks to eight mouths each at Pisidian Antioch,
Iconium, Derbe, Thessalonica, Bercea, Philippi and
Athens.^ Nearly all these places were great cen-
ters not only of population bnt also of govern-
ment, commerce and education. They were cen-
ters of wickedness as well. Athens was the great
university city of the world. Corinth was not
only the metropolis of Achaia but also one of the
greatest cities in the Empire. Ephesus was a vast
focus merging the currents of life from both East
and West. Rome was the metropolis of the Em-
pire, and probably the most cosmopolitan city of
any age.

St. Paul laid siege to these cities, regarding
them, however, not merely as ends in themselves,
but as bases for aggressive evangelistic operations
in the outlying districts. This we see clearly by
noting his work at Ephesus. It was the capital of
the province of Asia, one of the largest, richest
and most populous provinces in the Empire. It
is said that there were five hundred cities in the
province.^ St. Paul was able to say concerning
immediate labors in the city, "by the space of

' See Ramsay's " The Church in the Roman Empire," and
" St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen.''
* Fisher, " The Beginnings of Christianity," 519.
71

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

three years I ceased not to admonish every one
night and day with tears/* ^ and St. Luke declares
regarding the work accomplished in the province
directly and indirectly " that all they which dwelt
in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews
and Greeks." 2 It is entirely probable that St.
Paul himself made tours in the province. It is
also likely that he sent out workers. Many people
who came up to the city on business or pleasure
heard the new doctrine, yielded to its influence
and went back to their homes to spread the truth.
While right of way was given to the work of
evangelization, the Apostles were careful to con-
serve results. Converts were baptized and organ-
ized into churches. The aim was to make these
churches self-governing, self-supporting and mis-
sionary ; and when all the difficulties are borne in
mind, the success achieved in all these respects
was truly remarkable. St. Paul was accustomed
to revisit the churches which he had helped to es-
tablish. He visited the Galatian congregations at
least twice. He sent deputations to the various
churches to correct, to edify and to inspire them.
He had a number of subordinate helpers such as
Timothy, Titus, Mark and Erastus, whom he kept
busy in this important work. The Acts and the
• Acts XX. 31. ' Acts xix. 10.

72

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE EAKLY CHRISTIANS

Epistles give the names of about one hundred com-
panions and disciples of St. Paul. Apostolic and
other letters were sent as occasion required to
different churches and were often passed on from
church to church. Communication by means of
deputations and correspondence was kept up be-
tween the scattered Christian congregations, not
only in the same region but also between widely
separated parts of the Empire. The itinerant
apostles and prophets were very numerous in the
early days.^ As a result of the employment of
these various agencies, the Christians of the first
generation were made conscious of their unity and
felt the growing strength of their numbers.

The Apostolic Church committed the work of
extending the Kingdom of Christ to men of strong
qualifications. One must be impressed with the
thoroughness of the equipment of workers like St.
Paul, Barnabas, ApoUos and Timothy. Among
their striking qualifications were statesmanship,
clearness of vision, breadth of sympathy, intense
earnestness, singleness of purpose, heroism, self-
denial, whole-souled devotion to Christ, large faith
in God, prayerf ulness and dependence on the Holy
Spirit. It is especially noticeable that the spirit-

'McGiffert, " A History of Christianity in the Apostolic
Age," UO.

73

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

ual qualifications were magnified and regarded as
absolntely indispensable for all workers, even those
in the subordinate positions. In choosing the
Seven, the Apostles ordered that men be chosen
who were " full of the Spirit." ^ Apparently no
worker was encouraged to go forth to evangel-
ize who had not first been filled with the Holy
Spirit.

Prayer had a very prominent place in the early
Church, not only as a means of promoting spirit-
ual life, but also as a force to be used on behalf of
the work of evangelization. The mighty display
of power at Pentecost was ushered in by prayer.
Workers were appointed only after prayer. When
they were to be sent forth the Church assembled
for special prayer. The great foreign mission
xnovement was inaugurated in prayer. If perse-
cution came, the Christians met to pray. One of
the two reasons for choosing deacons was that the
Apostles — the leaders of the Church — might give
themselves to prayer. The more carefully the
subject is studied, the more apparent it becomes
that what was accomplished in the Apostolic Age
was largely due to the constant employment of the
hidden and omnipotent force of prayer.

The Spirit of God guided and empowered the

' Acts vi, 3.
74

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS

workers and thus governed and energized the en-
tire missionary enterprise of the Church. He des-
ignated and separated the workers and sent them
forth unto their work. He clothed them with irre-
sistible power. He opened and closed doors. He
led them in times of perplexity. In His might
they carried the Gospel message throughout the
length and breadth of the vast empire of Rome
and even into the regions beyond.

What is the significance of the achievements
of the Christians of the first generation for the
Christians of to-day as we face the undertaking of
world evangelization in this generation ? While
the Apostolic practice may not be intended in
every respect as the model for the missionary en-
terprise in all ages, for the simple reason that con-
ditions change, their example and the real secret
of their triumphs should lift our faith, and guide
us to the successful accomplishment of our task.
The early Christians had some favoring external
conditions which, as we have seen, greatly facili-
tated the wide, rapid and thorough proclamation
of the Gospel. But as we recall the smallness of
their number and the difficulties which beset their
path, and, on the other hand, remind ourselves
not only of our obstacles but also of the marvelous
opportunities and resources of the Church to-day
76

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

and the facilities at our disposal, who will say that
the balance of advantage is not with us ?

The words of Dr. Richard S. Storrs, on the
occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the
American Board, impressively suggest the likeness
of our own generation to the Apostolic Age as a
time for world-wide preaching of the Gospel : "I
cannot think it exaggeration to say, in view of the
changes thus occurring within the century, that
the astonishing preparation of the world for the
first proclamation of the Master in it is now fol-
lowed, if not surpassed, by a majestic prepara-
tion of mankind for such a testimony to be given
to Him as hitherto no dream of the heart has
imagined to be possible. . . . The marvelous
secular progress of mankind in the last eighty
years, the unexpected advancements or recessions
of states^ with the closer connections arising be-
tween them, and the opening of all lands to the
moral forces dominant in Christendom — these give
an equally majestic opportunity, in our time, for
the furthest and swiftest exhibition of Him in
whom the world has its help and its hope. Grad-
ual preparation, ultimating in sudden consumma-
tion, is often God's method in history. It was
so before the coming of the Master. It was so be-
fore the conversion of the Empire. It was so, sig-
76

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE EARLY CHEISTIANS

nally, before the Reformation. It seems to be so
in our day."^

It should be emphasized once more^ however,
that what was achieved by the Apostolic Church
was due not so much to the prevailing external
conditions as to the equipment of the workers and
their conception of their work, and that in all
these essential respects we may be like the Chris-
tians of those days. Making allowance for mirac-
ulous gifts, what vitally important method did the
early Christians employ which cannot be used to-
day .'' Of what power did they avail themselves
which we cannot utilize ? The essential aim and
character of the missionary work in both periods
remain the same. The program of Christianity
has not changed. The Gospel is the same. The
Word of God is still quick and powerful. The
power of prayer has not been diminished. " Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday and to-day, yea and
forever " and abides even unto the end of the age
with all those who go forth to represent Him.
Man is still the weak instrument whom God
uses, and the Holy Spirit is still the inexhaustible
source of power. Surely Bishop Thoburn is right
when he says : " If we could bring back the
Church of Pentecost to earth, or, rather, if we
* " Commemorative Volume," 52.
71

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

could receive anew universally the spirit of that
model Church of all ages, the idea of evangeliz-
ing the world in a single generation would no
longer appear visionary ; but on the other hand it
would seem so reasonable, so practicable, and the
duty to perform it so imperative, that everyone
would begin to wonder why any intelligent Chris-
tians had ever doubted its possibility, or been con-
tent to let weary years go by without a vast uni-
versal movement throughout all the Churches of
Christendom at once to go forward and complete
the task." ^

* Letter in Archives of the Student Volunteer Movement.

78

THE POSSIBILITY OF EVANGELIZING THE
WORLD IN THIS GENERATION IN VIEW OF
SOME MODERN MISSIONARY ACHIEVEMENTS

To consider a few among the many modern
achievements of the Church on mission fields will
serve to illustrate the possibility of evangelizing
the world in this generation.

The work in Manchuria of the Irish Presbyte-
rians and of the United Presbyterians of Scotland
is a good example of what may be accomplished
within less than a generation toward the evangeli-
zation of a country by a comparatively small num-
ber of foreign workers. Manchuria is about eight
hundred miles long and five hundred miles wide.
Its area is more than eleven times as great as that
of Ireland, and three times that of the entire
British Isles. It has a population estimated at
from 15,000,000 to 25,000,000 composed of Chi-
nese and of Manchus, the race which conquered
China. Manchuria might be considered a colony
of China ; for there has been a constant stream of
79

THE EVANGELIZATION OP THE WOKLD

immigration from that empire for centuries, and
the Chinese now constitute the principal part of
the population. The people have great physical and
intellectual vigor and are one of the strongest races
in all Asia. Chinese is the prevailing language.

Two Irish Presbyterian missionaries arrived in
Manchuria in 1870, and two from the United Pres-
byterian Church of Scotland in 1872. These de-
nominations united their work in a common Pres-
bytery in 1891. The number of foreign workers
has been gradually increased until at the beginning
of 1900 there were in both missions sixty-six, in-
cluding the wives of twenty-one missionaries. Ten
years ago there were only about half as many for-
eign workers.

The Manchurian field presented difficulties sim-
ilar to those encountered by missionaries in China.
When Dr. John Koss arrived in 1873 foreign resi-
dence was allowed only at the port of Newchwang.
With the help of passports, however, tours could
be made in the interior. The attitude of the na-
tives was strongly hostile, as all foreigners were
regarded with suspicion. Both missionaries and
native Christians had to suffer many indignities.
The opposition has taken frequently the form of
severe persecution. Especially trying were the
experiences of the native Christians during the
80

MODERN MISSIONARY ACHIEVEMENTS

war between Japan and China. The extreme con-
servatism, gross materialism and stolid indifference
and pride of the natives, as in the case of all parts
of China proper, have presented a great barrier to
the work of evangelization.

In 1873 there were three converts. The num-
ber increased slowly but constantly during the first
twenty years. During that period there was un-
wearied and broadcast seed sowing. By 1895 there
were nearly 4,000 baptized members of the Church.
Only two years later, 1897, there were over 8,000
members. One year later still, 1898, there were
more than 14,000. And the latest reports re-
ceived show that at the close of 1899 the number
of baptized members was about 19,000, and the
number of catechumens nearly 6,000. The rate
of increase of baptized members for the past five
years has thus averaged fifty per cent, each year.

Rev. William Hunter, a missionary in Manchu-
ria, expresses the opinion that " about ten times
the present membership have done forever with
idol worship, and it is likely that those who are
definitely moving towards Christianity are largely
in excess of that number, and these may be re-
garded as intellectually accepting as satisfactory
the bottom truths of Christianity." ^ While recog-

' Letter in Archives of the Student Volunteer Movement,
81

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOELD

nizing the difi&culty of estimating such matters,
he considers it not improbable that half of the
adult population of the country know that there is
a Christian Gospel. In 1896, Dr. Eoss said in a
personal interview that one-third of the people
had heard of Christ and knew enough to pronounce
Christianity the best religion. He also stated in
an address that *Hhe Gospel is speedily gaining
such a rapid diffusion that we may anticipate at
no distant date its contact with every village and
town in the country/' ^ As far back as seven years
one of the missionaries who made a journey of 360
miles into the interior, over the wretched Man-
churian roads, could report that on only one day
did he fail to meet some member of the Church.
There are whole districts in which no one is more
than five miles from a church, and there are
doubtless very few people in any of these districts
who do not know of the existence of one of these
churches or chapels. Another missionary, report-
ing a tour of last year, records that he visited one
town of whose existence the missionaries had been
ignorant and found thirty-six inquirers. At the
next place, although no missionary had ever visited
it, he found not only many inquirers but also a
Christian chapel — the result of the work of a na-

> " The Evangelization of China," 49.
83

MODERN MISSIONARY ACHIEVEMENTS

tive convert who had moved there. A little farther
on he entered another city where also he unex-
pectedly found a group of Christians. In all Man-
churia south of the Sungari River no large town
and but few hamlets remain untouched by the
Gospel.^

What means were employed to accomplish these
results ? We notice as the first factor less than
sixty foreign missionaries, the large majority of
whom have been but a few years in the country.
A chain of mission stations has been stretched
across the entire country from Newchwang to the
Sungari, at each of which two or more foreign
missionaries are at work. Subordinate to these
stations are secondary centers, each having a
trained and capable native evangelist. Around
these in turn are many still smaller stations each
with its preaching place or chapel. The mission-
aries have devoted themselves largely to itinerat-
ing and to raising up, training and directing a force
of native workers. Medical work has been and is
an effective means of winning the people and
commending the Gospel to them. The circulat-
ing of the Scriptures and other Christian litera-
ture has done much to help spread the knowledge

• Missionary Record of the United Presbyterian Churchy
Vol. LIV., 143.

83

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOKLD

of Christ. The British and Foreign Bible Society
has for years given splendid co-operation. Mr.
Hunter reckons that not far from 300,000 book-
lets are sold each year, and that the total number
sold must have reached two millions. But the
principal and most fruitful means of evangeliza-
tion has been the presentation of the Gospel by
preaching in chapels and by personal interviews.

From the beginning constant emphasis has been
placed on using native workers to the fullest ex-
tent possible. The stations already established
are so numerous that it is impossible for the mis-
sionaries to do more than pay them hasty visits.
Nearly five hundred natives are now at work as
evangelists, teachers, colporteurs, medical assist-
ants and Bible women. They carry on the work
of evangelism far more extensively and effectively
than could foreigners. In spreading the Gospel
the rank and file of the native Christians are a still
larger factor than the native evangelists. Dr. Eoss
says that three-fourths of the church members
preach the Gospel every day of their lives without
pay. Women come who have been taught by their
husbands, and whole families who are led by one
member. This self-propagating power of the
Church is the most hopeful aspect of the work.

The native Christians are also doing much to
84

MODERN MISSIONARY ACHIEVEMENTS

make their work self-supporting. They provide
their own chapels and give increasingly toward
the expenses of the medical, literary and evan-
gelistic work. In 1898 they gave on an average
the equivalent of a full week's wages per mem-
ber— a somewhat remarkable showing when the
poverty of the people is borne in mind.^ So
much are they developing in liberality that some
think that they will be ready to support pastors
more rapidly than pastors can be raised up and
trained for them to support. The policy of the
missionaries in concentrating their efforts more
and more on the preparation of native leaders is
eminently statesmanlike and gives promise of
large results. With the foregoing facts in mind
who can doubt that by a wise enlargement of the
agencies employed in Manchuria such a people
could be evangelized within a generation ?

Among the most remarkable triumphs of mis-
sions during the past few decades has been the
work of the Church Missionary Society in Uganda.
Stanley, in writing about it, says : ''I know of
few secular enterprises, military or otherwise,
deserving of greater praise." ^

' Rev. William Hunter, letter in Archives of the Student
Volunteer Movement.

2 The Atlantic Monthly, October, 1897, p. 475.
85

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

Uganda is a country of 70,000 square miles
situated on the north side of Victoria Nyanza.
It is one of the most populous, fertile and power-
ful states of East Central Africa. The inhabi-
tants, called Waganda, number from a million
and a half to two millions and are a strong people.

In 1875 Stanley sent a letter to The Daily Tele-
graph of London appealing to Christians to es-
tablish a mission in Uganda. Within two days
the Church Missionary Society received an offer
of $35,000 on condition that it would undertake
the enterprise. The fund soon increased to $75,-
000. In 1876 the first party of missionaries was
sent out. Some of their number died and two
were killed before they reached their destination.
Two of them reached Uganda in 1877, and were
welcomed with honors by the king. The mission
had up-hill work for thirteen years. During this
early period Alexander Mackay was the principal
and, at times, the only foreign worker. As late
as 1890 when an appeal was made for reinforce-
ments there were only four missionaries in the
country. The number has since been steadily
growing until now there are twenty. If laymen,
wives of missionaries and other women workers
are added, the total foreign force is about sixty.

The obstacles encountered by missionaries in
86

MODEKN MISSIONARY ACHIEVEMENTS

Uganda were many. The inaccessibility of the
field has made it extremely difficult for workers to
reach the country and to secure necessary supplies.
The fact that the missionaries were falsely charged
by Arab traders with having political designs has
been at times a drawback to their work. The
Christians have frequently been subjected to per-
secution. Bishop Hannington, on his arrival on
the borders of the country in 1885, was murdered
by order of the king. In the following year the
persecution was especially fierce, threatening the
extirpation of Christianity. Some native Chris-
tians were horribly mutilated or hacked to pieces.
Others were tortured and then roasted alive.
Thirty-two were slowly burned to death on one
great pyre. Probably two hundred native Chris-
tians and adherents perished, but it is said that
none renounced their faith.

The extreme conceit of the Waganda and the
prevalence among them of laziness, falsehood, lust,
hatred, murder and barbarous practices rendered
Uganda an unpromising field. Polytheism, witch-
craft and countless superstitions had a strong hold
on all classes. The missionaries were obliged to re-
duce the language to writing and to develop an en-
tire Christian vocabulary. Add to all these dif-
ficulties the opposition of Islam and the plotting
87

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOELD

of the Romanists, and it will be seen that the
evangelization of Uganda was a most arduous task.
It makes the achievements of the Christian work-
ers there seem all the more striking.

In 1882, five years after the missionaries reached
Uganda, they had their first baptisms. Up to the
end of the seventh year less than a hundred had
been baptized. In 1890 the tide began to rise
more rapidly. Bishop Tucker had meetings in
1891 which were so largely attended that the crush
reminded him of Exeter Hall. When the cathe-
dral was dedicated in the following year the audi-
ence numbered nearly 4,000. In 1893, during a
great revival led by Pilkington, hundreds were
converted. The influence of this revival extended
far and wide in different directions. At the be-
ginning of 1894 there were only twenty country
chapels, but by the end of that year the number
had increased to 200. In 1895, when Bishop
Tucker made his next visit, he found the work
established at ten stations, and 200 buildings
thronged with worshippers or seekers every Sun-
day, most of them on week days also. During the
eight months of his stay he confirmed 2,052 candi-
dates in communities reaching to the west 200
miles from Mengo to Toro, and on the islands of
the lake.

88

MODERN MISSIONARY ACHIEVEMENTS

When Pilkington was in England in 1896 he
"was able to write : '*' A hundred thousand souls
brought into close contact with the Gospel — half
of them able to read for themselves ; 200 buildings
raised by native Christians in which to worship
God and read His word ; 200 native evangelists and
teachers entirely supported by the Native Church ;
10,000 copies of the New Testament in circulation ;
6,000 souls eagerly seeking daily instruction ; sta-
tistics of baptism, of confirmation, of adherents,
of teachers, more than doubling yearly for the last
six or seven years, ever since the return of the
Christians from exile ; the power of God shown by
changed lives ; and all this in the center of the
thickest spiritual darkness in the world ! . . .
' The World to be evangelized in this generation ' —
can it be done ? Kyagwe, a province fifty miles
square, has had the Gospel preached, by lip and life,
through almost every village in the space of one
short year, by some seventy native evangelists, un-
der the supervision of only two Europeans : more
than 2,000 square miles and only two Europeans !
The teacher on Busi has by this time probably ac-
complished his purpose of visiting every house in
that island with the message of Salvation on his
lips. Soon we may hope that there will be no
house left in Uganda that has not had God's mes-

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

sage brought thus to its very threshold."* In
1899 there were over 400 chnrches, more than
17,000 baptized members, and nearly 900 native
agents. Ethiopia has indeed stretched forth her
hands nnto God.

In speaking at the Student Volunteer Con-
vention in Liverpool, Pilkington gave a valuable
estimate, based on experience, as to the proportion
of foreign and native workers required to evangel-
ize the regions surrounding Uganda. He said :
^' From various places in Uganda openings can be
made into the vast country beyond. The popula-
tion in an area comprising 200 miles radius all
around Uganda is 10,000,000, or one-twentieth of
the whole population of Africa, and this could be
evangelized in three years if there were missionary
stations all over the country, at a distance of fifty
miles from each other in every direction, each one
supporting one European missionary and 100
native helpers." ^

What is the secret of the wonderful success
achieved in Uganda ? The persevering, self-deny-
ing lives of missionaries like Mackay and Pilking-
ton, and the martyr deaths of Hannington and of

' Charles E. Harford-Battersby, "Pilkington of Uganda,"
272, 273, 280.

« "Make Jesus King," 206, 207.
90

MODERN MISSIONARY ACHIEVEMENTS

scores of native Christians must be reckoned as an
important cause. " Except a grain of wheat fall
into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone ;
but if it die, it beareth much fruit." ^ Wise use
has been made of different forms of missionary-
work. The printed word of God has exerted an
immense influence. Much of the time the demand
for the Scriptures has been far greater than could
be satisfied, although the New Testament sold at
a price equivalent to the cost of a man's food for
two months.

The native Church has accomplished by far the
larger part of the work. Hundreds of native
preachers and teachers have been hard at work for
years spreading the knowledge of Christ. To-day,
as we have seen, their number is well nigh a thou-
sand. Scores of these leaders are men who refused
chieftainships in order that they might devote
themselves to proclaiming the Gospel to their own
countrymen. Their labors have not been confined
to the main centers. They have pressed out in-
creasingly into the country districts. Not a few
might be regarded as foreign missionaries ; for
they are working in regions beyond Uganda, and
are supported by their fellow Christians. Although
England has given the country its missionary

' St. John xii. 24.
91

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

leaders and its version of the Bible, the native
workers are supported and the churches are built
by the Waganda themselves. Doubtless the deep-
est secret of the spiritual movement, which has
been going on notably during the last seven years,
is the fact that the leaders came to recognize their
absolute insufficiency to meet the need of the
people and yielded themselves to the mighty work
of the Holy Spirit.

The study of this example forces upon one the
conviction that if so small a number of workers
could accomplish so much in a few years, all
Uganda might be easily evangelized within a gen-
eration. Moreover, if the obstacles to evangeliza-
tion have been overcome to such an extent in that
country, they can be surmounted in all parts of
Africa. If the Christian Church would put forth
her energies, it is not incredible that the inhabi-
tants of the entire Dark Continent might in this
generation be given an adequate opportunity to
know Christ. While external difficulties to
evangelization may be different among the people
of other continents and races from what we have
found them to be in the heart of Africa, the essen-
tial factors in the problem are the same the world
over. Who can set a limit to the achievements
of men filled with the Spirit of God, who, wielding
92

MODERN MISSIONARY ACHIEVEMENTS

the force of prayer, go forth to preach Christ
where He has not been named.

In the work of evangelizing the world the
native Church must have a large part. It is
necessary to raise up and train men and women to
lead these forces. This is the great aim of educa-
tional missionary work. The problem is not only
to increase the number of native leaders, but also
to develop workers who will be strong and safe
leaders of their people.

The Presbyterian College at Teng-chou Fu,
China, is a good example of an institution which
is helping to solve this problem. From the first
it has stood for quality rather than for numbers.
For over thirty years Dr. Calvin Mateer and his
wife devoted the best energies of their lives to the
comparatively small number of young men ad-
mitted to the college. They made much of per-
sonal contact with the students and estimated that
they could personally and deeply influence but
about sixty at a time. The students were care-
fully selected and were kept as a rule for several
years. The education given was very thorough.
The spirit and teaching of the college were mark-
edly Christian. Every one of the 120 graduates
has been a pronounced Christian, and almost all
of them, as well as a number of other students
93

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

who went out before graduation, are engaged in
direct Christian work as teachers, pastors, evan-
gelists and physicians. They occupy positions of
influence from Manchuria on the North to the
southernmost province of China. It is said that
every high school north of the Yangtse has one
or more Teng-chou graduates among its teachers.
The University at Peking has six of them in its
faculty and the Imperial University at Nanking
has three. Thus this college is teaching the teach-
ers, and indirectly as well as directly is exerting
an immense influence on the extension of Christ's
Kingdom among the Chinese. If Dr. and Mrs.
Mateer had done nothing more than to make pos-
sible these results, they would have accomplished
a mighty work toward the evangelization of
China.

Another example of fruitful educational mis-
sionary effort was the work a generation since
of Miss Eliza Agnew of the American Board in the
girl's boarding school at Oodooville, Ceylon. Dur-
ing her forty-one years of continuous service,
fully 600 girls were graduated. Although a ma-
jority of them came from heathen homes every
one went out from the school a professing Chris-
tian. Hundreds of others who did not graduate
were also led to Christ. Nearly all of them be-
94

MODERN MISSIONARY ACHIEVEMENTS

came leading women in their home communities.
Twenty-five became Bible readers, thirty-nine
teachers in boarding schools, twenty-one teachers
in village schools, 143 married native pastors and
teachers and 166 became wives of government
officials and other educated men. What an
achievement for one worker in one generation !

The faithful teachers of Oodooville and Teng-
chou Fu are not isolated examples. There are
to-day scores of men and women of like conse-
cration, purpose and persistency who have molded
or are now quietly, patiently and prayerfully
molding the lives of thousands of young men and
women in such colleges, schools and training in-
stitutions as Duff College in Calcutta, the Ba-
reilly Theological Seminary, the Woman's College
at Lucknow, Pasumalai College, Jaffna College,
the Anglo-Chinese College at Foochow, the Train-
ing College at Tung Cho, the True Light Semi-
nary at Canton, the Woman's College at Naga-
saki, the Doshisha, the Euphrates College, the
Central Turkey College at Aintab, the Training
College at Asyut, the Syrian Protestant College
at Beirut and many others which have been or
are strongholds and propagating centers for Chris-
tianity. Who can measure the possibilities of
these institutions of higher learning, if their
95

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOKLD

students are filled with the Spirit of Christ and
with a passion for the evangelization of the
world ?

The Moravian Church has, in proportion to its
ability, done more to extend Christ's Kingdom in
the world than has any other body of Christians.
As an object lesson in the development of the mis-
sionary life of the home Church it is notable, and
should be a guide and inspiration to other branches
of the Church of Christ. AVithin forty years after
the establishment of their settlement at Herrn-
hut nearly two centuries ago, they had started
eighteen different foreign missions. During all
their history the Moravians have been loyal to the
missionary purpose. Missions have always had a
large place in all their plans and activities. They
have regarded this enterprise, not merely as an
incident, but as their main business.

They have sent out more than 2,000 of their
members as foreign missionaries. At the begin-
ning of 1899 they had 379 missionaries (men and
women), or one in sixty-six of the communicant
members of their home churches in Europe and
America. Their young men and young women
are trained to look upon service abroad as a privi-
lege. No urgency is required. It is never difficult
to secure recruits. One of the secretaries of the
96

MODERN MISSIONARY ACHIEVEMENTS

Student Volunteer Movement made an address in
a Moravian college and appealed for volunteers.
He was surprised when at the close of his address
the chairman of the meeting assured him that
every student in the college was already practically
a volunteer — willing and desirous to become a
foreign missionary. Dr. Augustus C. Thompson
tells of the little community of Konigsfeld in
the Black Forest which has twenty-one out of
418 of its members engaged in foreign mission

service,

In 1898 the members of the Moravian Church
gave to foreign missions nearly $80^000.^ This
does not include the amount contributed to their
work by members of other churches. Thus the
Moravians themselves give on an average $2.10
each. If the members of the Protestant evangelical
churches of Great Britain and North America gave
in like proportion, their missionary contributions
would aggregate over $60,000,000. Theirs is also
a praying Church. There is probably no other
branch of the Church of Christ whose members
devote themselves so earnestly to intercession on
behalf of world-wide missions. Even their hym-

' " Moravian Missions," 487, 488.

' Periodical Accounts Relating to the Moravian Missions^
Sept., 1899.

97

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

nology to an unusual extent is devoted to the
spread and triumph of Christ's Kingdom.

It is not strange in view of the self-denial, con-
secration and prayerfulness of the Moravians at
home that God has honored their work abroad.
From 138 stations in twenty-one provinces, scat-
tered throughout the four great mission continents
of the world, they are sending forth the Gospel
light. They have a force of 1,839 native pastors,
teachers and helpers, and a membership of 96,197
— or nearly three times as many as in all their
churches in the home lands.^ In many respects
they resemble the Church of the first century. If
the members of Protestant churches in the British
Isles, the United States and Canada, not to men-
tion other parts of Eeformed Christendom, de-
voted themselves to the missionary enterprise with
the energy shown by the Moravian Church, they
would have a force of nearly 400,000 foreign
workers. No such number would be required to
achieve the evangelization of the world in this
generation.

Only a few illustrations have been given of recent
evangelistic achievements of the Church in non-
Christian lands. There are others almost equally

> " The Text Book of the Morayiaa Church" (for 1900),
161, 162.

98

MODERN MISSIONARY ACHIEVEMENTS

striking. The work of the American Baptists
among the Karens reads like the record of a war
of conquest. The wonderful Telugu revival in
the Lone Star Mission, after nearly a generation
of quiet work, still serves to lift the faith of the
Church. The first twenty years of the Gossner
Mission among the Kols presents an impressive
example of evangelization in the midst of the
difficulties of another Indian field. The achieve-
ments of the Church Missionary Society and the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Tin-
nevelly, especially in view of the prominent part
taken by native Christians, abound in instruc-
tive lessons as to how to hasten the evangeliza-
tion of India. The mass movement carried on
among the outcasts of Northern India by the
Methodist Episcopal Church is unquestionably
a work of God and has brought the Gospel
to a vast multitude of people. Difficult as
is the problem of the evangelization of Moham-
medans, there is much of encouragement in the
work of the Reformed Church in Arabia. Even
more remarkable in this connection have been the
triumphs of the Rhenish Mission in Sumatra,
where over 2,000 Mohammedans have already ac-
knowledged Christ, and where we find the largest
congregation of converted Mohammedans in the

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOELD

world. The Norwegian Lutherans, as well as the
London Missionary Society, have accomplished a
work of evangelization in parts of Madagascar
which is worthy of the most careful study. The
Livingstonia Mission of the Free Church of Scot-
land ranks in many respects with the Uganda
mission as suggesting the secret of the wide-spread
evangelization of the Dark Continent. Nor
should the Southern Presbyterian Mission at
Luebo in the heart of Africa be forgotten in
mentioning those which have had a large fruit-
age. The United Presbyterians have covered the
Lower Nile Valley with a net-work of evangelistic
agencies. After many years of deep preparatory
work in the Fukien Province by the American
Board, the Reformed Church, the Methodist
Episcopal Church and the Church Missionary
Society, the past few years have witnessed the
greatest ingathering in the history of missions in
China. The China Inland Mission in thrusting
forth its hundreds of light-bearers into the un-
broken darkness of the interior of China, not only
has been preaching Christ to those who had never
heard of Him, but also has stimulated the entire
Church to more prayerful and aggressive effort.
The Gospel is being preached to the unevangel-
ized with great success in Korea at the present
100

MODERN MISSIONARY ACHIEVEMENTS

time by the Presbyterians. The Eussian Church
Mission in Japan, under the leadership of the
able Archbishop Nicolai, has done a work which
is not without its important lessons to Protestant
societies. The evangelization of the Hawaiian
Islands by the Congregationalists and of the Fiji
group by the Wesleyans should strengthen and
enlarge the faith of every Christian in the power
of the Gospel to reach and transform the most
benighted and degraded.

To realize how the evangelization of the world
has been hastened by the labors of the medical
missionaries, one need only recall the Ranaghat
Medical Mission in Bengal, the work of Dr. Clark
at Amritsar, the marvelous record of the Tientsin
Hospital, the abundant labors of Dr. Kerr at
Canton and Dr. Post at Beirut and the Christ-like
ministry . of many other medical missionaries in
all parts of the world field.

Nor should we overlook the vital relation which
literary work has had and always will have to the
evangelization of the world. The patient and
thorough work of the hundreds of missionaries
who have devoted themselves to the translation of
the Scriptures and Christian literature, the cease-
less activity of scores of mission presses like those
at Beirut, Shanghai and Calcutta, and the work
101

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

of the Bible societies in all lands, have mnltiplied
the power and influence of all other agencies,
and have sown the seed of the Kingdom far and
wide.

It should be noted also that there are a great
many fields where the evangelistic efforts of the
missionaries have not yet been attended with large
visible results. Scattered all over the world are
thousands of missionaries, whose names are not
associated with conspicuous success, but who,
nevertheless, have been proclaiming Christ with a
faithfulness, thoroughness and heroism fully equal
to that which has characterized the more promi-
nent workers. They also are an essential factor
in the world's evangelization ; and both they that
sow and they that reap shall rejoice together. In
view of the extent to which the Gospel has already
been thoroughly preached, whether with or with-
out apparent results, by a comparatively small
number of workers, it seems reasonable to believe
that by a judicious increase and proper distribu-
tion of all missionary agencies which have com-
mended themselves to the Church, an adequate
opportunity to know Christ as Saviour and Lord
might be given to all people within our day. In
the words of a veteran Indian missionary, " The
largeness of God's blessing on the puny efforts
102

MODERN MISSIONARY ACHIEVEMENTS

already made for evangelizing the heathen, dem-
onstrate beyond the possibility of a doubt, that we
are well able to evangelize the toTiole world in a
single generation."^

• Dr. R. G. Wilder in The Missionary Review^ Vol.
VIII., 14.

103

VI

THE POSSIBILITY OF EVANGELIZING THE
WORLD IN THIS GENERATION IN VIEW OF
THE OPPORTUNITIES, FACILITIES AND RE-
SOURCES OF THE CHURCH

It would seem that there is no sufficient ground
for doubting the ability of the Church to-day to
give the whole world the opportunity to know and
to accept Christ. The fact that no generation has
evangelized the world is not satisfactory proof that
it might not have been done. Still less are we to
measure the present ability of the Church by the
standards and practice of a Church in the past not
awake to her duty to the non-Christian world and
under far less favorable conditions for world-wide
missionary operations. The power of the Church
has not yet been put to the real test. It seems
hardly right to call a thing impossible or impracti-
cable which has not been attempted. Livingstone
said in a letter written from the interior of Africa
not long before his death, " You don't know what
you can do, until you try." * The world-wide
' Douglas M. Thornton, "Africa Waiting," 141.
104

RESOURCES OF THE CHURCH

proclamation of the Gospel awaits accomplishment
by a generation which shall have the obedience,
courage and determination to attempt the task.

Viewed from a human standpoint, the evangeli-
zation of the world in this generation may not
seem probable ; bat the contention is that it is
entirely possible. Instead of assuming that this is
impossible we should remember that God never
has imposed upon the Church an impossible task.
His commands are His enablings. A survey of the
opportunities and resources of the Church and the
facilities at her disposal will make it plain that she
is more favorably situated in this than she has been
in any preceding generation for the evangelization
of the world.

For the first time in the history of the Church
practically the whole world is open. The marvel-
ous orderings of Providence during the nineteenth
century, and notably during the past fifty years,
have set before the Church the open doors for
which Christians for generations have been pray-
ing. We are not justified in saying that there is a
single country on the face of the earth where the
Church, if she seriously desires, cannot send am-
bassadors for Christ to proclaim His message. If
it be said that we ought not to force our way but
to wait for Providential openings, it should be an-
105

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOKLD

swered that neither onght we to neglect embracing
the opportunities which God has already placed
before us. Well did Carey exclaim, " What open-
ings of Providence do we wait for ? We can
neither expect to be transported into the heathen
world without ordinary means, nor to be endowed
with the gift of tongues, &c., when we arrive there.
These would not be Providential interpositions,
but miraculous ones. Where a command exists
nothing can be necessary to render it binding but
a removal of those obstacles which render obedience
impossible, and these are removed already. Natu-
ral impossibility can never be pleaded so long as
facts exist to prove the contrary." ^

It should be noticed also that there is no insu-
perable obstacle to world-wide evangelization so
far as the ability of the heathen to understand the
Gospel is concerned. The history of missions,
even among the lowest types of humanity, demon-
strates the truth of the statement of Bishop Sel-
wyn, made after many years of observation and
experience among the degraded inhabitants of the
islands of the Southern Seas, " that all mankind
are endued by the Spirit of God, in God's own
time, with a sufficient measure of capacity to re-

' "An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use
Means for the Conversion of the Heathens," 11.
106

RESOURCES OF THE CHURCH

ceive everything that is necessary for the salvation
of their souls ; that there is no one single human
being on the face of God's earth who is shut out
from the promises of the Gospel by any difference
of intellectual or of moral capacity." ^ This does
not mean that all men will accept the Gospel, but
that all men are capable of receiving it. Many,
doubtless, will not accept it should the opportu-
nity be presented. Even in Christ's own day, in
face of His direct teachings and mighty works,
many did not yield to the truth. On the other
hand, in every place where Christ has been faith-
fully presented some have accepted Him. There-
fore whether men heed the Gospel call or not, it is
to-day possible to bring it to their attention.

In considering the Church's present power
of achievement we should take account of the
facilities at her disposal. Among these may be
mentioned, in the first place, the work of the geo-
graphical societies. There are not less than eighty-
three geographical societies with a membership
of 50,000, and 153 geographical journals.'^ A
hundred years ago nearly one-third of the globe
was absolutely unknown. At the beginning of

' H. W. Tucker, "Memoir of the Life and Episcopate of
George Augustus Selvryn, D.D.," II., 296.

^ Hugh Robert Mill, in " The International Geography," 12.
107

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

Qneen Victoria's reign practically nothing was
known of the interior of China and Japan, Central
Asia, Tibet and Afghanistan, As late as 1880
the interior of Africa was almost a blank, yet
within twelve years the country was quite fully
mapped out. The recent explorations of Dr. Sven
Hedin and others have unveiled much of Central
Asia. So to-day practically all of the inhabited
portions of the earth are known to civilization.
This is a distinct help to the Church. At the
same time it has enlarged her responsibility. The
words of Carey are to the point : " It was not the
duty of Paul to preach Christ to the inhabitants
of Otaheite, because no such place was then dis-
covered, nor had he any means of coming at them.
But none of these things can be alleged by us in
behalf of the neglect of the commission given by
Christ."!

The knowledge of the social, moral and spiritual
condition and need of all races of mankind which
the Church now possesses should greatly facilitate
her work on behalf of the world. The one fact,
for example, that the non-Christian religions have
been found wanting in Divine authority, power
and fruitfulness should and will help to make

' " An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use
Means for the Conversion of the Heathens," 10.
108

RESOURCES OF THE CHURCH

Christians realize their responsibility to the
world.

The greatly enlarged and improved means of
communication constitutes one of the chief facili-
ties of which the Church of this generation can
avail herself. Of the 454,730 miles of railway in
the world a considerable mileage is already to be
found in non-Christian iands.^ It is possible, for
example, to go by rail to many parts of India,
Japan and South America. The greatest railway
enterprises of the time are those now building or
projected in non-Christian lands. The Siberian
Eailway will bring hundreds of millions of people
of the Far East a month nearer to the Christian
nations of Western Europe. The Cape-Cairo Kail-
way and the lines being stretched from the East
Coast of Africa will afford easy access to the peo-
ples in the interior of that continent. It is not
improbable that links will be supplied within a
few years connecting the Russian and Indian rail-
way systems, thus bringing London and Calcutta
within ten days of each other. Still more likely is
it that a line will soon connect the cities of the
Levant with some port on the Persian Gulf, thus
not only bringing India nearer us but also open-
ing up the regions of Asia Minor and the Eu-
> "Archiv fiir Eisenbahnwesen " (1899), 514-527.
109

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

phrates Valley.^ At the present time England,
America, Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Rus-
sia and Japan are either building or projecting
railways in China. Nearly twenty concessions for

' this purpose have been granted to foreign com-

panies within two years. When even a part of
these plans materialize, as they will within a few
years, more than one-third of the unevangelized
world will be made much more accessible than now
to the missionaries.

. -vW; The extension and improvement of the steam-
ship service has benefited the Church as well as
secular enterprises. Europe is twenty days nearer
America now than sixty years ago, five days nearer
than twenty years ago, and two days nearer than
ten years ago. Sixty years ago it required sixty
days for the mails to go from Bombay to London ;
now it requires considerably less than one-third
that time.^ It took Carey nearly five months to
go from Dover to Calcutta in 1793. One can make
the trip now in three weeks. Judson's trip from
Salem to Calcutta in 1812 consumed eleven
months ; and as late as 1859 it took Bishop Tho-
burn four months to go from Lynn to Calcutta.

' Alexander Hume Ford, " The Warfare of Eailways in
Asia," in The Century^ March, 1900, pp. 794-800.

' Eugene Stock, " The History of the Church Missionary
Society," I., 298.

110

EESOURCES OF THE CHURCH

Now one can go from New York to Calcutta in a
month. Moffat was three months in 1817 on the
way from Gravesend to Cape Town ; now the voy-
age lasts less than two weeks. These develop-
ments mean an immense saving of time to the
missionary force. r^ 4 (> y

The cable and telegraph systems of the world ' (toi^i^
are being used constantly by the missionary socie-
ties and are of the greatest service. There are
170,000 miles of submarine cables which have cost
at least $250,000,000. ^ All the grand divisions of
the earth are connected by them. They skirt the
South American continent, save the Southern ex-
tremity. They unite the islands of the West Indies
and the Central American States. Three lines
stretch from Europe and Africa to South America.
Cables completely encircle Africa. Four lines con-
nect Europe with the Far East. Along the East-
ern coast of Asia the lines loop from port to port
and reach on to Japan, to the Philippines, the
East Indies, Australia and New Zealand. The
benighted nations of Asia and Africa are in con-
stant communication with enlightened Europe
and America. Over 6,000,000 cable messages are

' " Submarine and Land Telegraphs of the World," in the
" Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance of the
United States," No. 7. Series 1898-99, pp. 1653-1675,
lU

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOKLD

transmitted annually. Any important event which
takes place at the antipodes in the morning we
hear of in the afternoon. The land telegraphs are
far more extensive. These and the cahle system
serve the Church not only by promoting general
intelligence but also in facilitating the financial
■ transactions and administrative work of the mis-
sionary societies.

The thoroughly organized and highly developed
news agencies which, through the various secular
papers, bring before the members of the Church
facts regarding the most distant and needy nations,
serve indirectly to awaken and to foster interest in
the inhabitants of less-favored lands. They have
made information about the world general and also
easy of acquisition.

The Universal Postal Union with its wonderful
organization, its vast army of 974,314 employees,
and 1,688,753 miles of regular post routes, im-
mensely facilitates the work of foreign missions.*
Within a few years at the outside it will include
within its sphere of action practically all of those
unevangelized parts of the world which have not
already been brought within its reach.

As a result of all these means and agencies of
communication the world has been growing smaller

» " Statistique General du Service Postal " (for 1897).
112

RESOURCES OF THE CHURCH

and smaller. They have united, as it were, the
separated continents into one great nation. They
have made the most remote and inaccessible parts
of the inhabited world easily accessible. When
Christ gave the Great Commission, the disciples
could not have gone to the world as we know it.
A man now might go around the world five times
within a year. Professor Ramsay points out that
*' there are no stronger influences in education and
in administration than rapidity and ease of trav-
eling and the postal service ; Paul both by precept
and example impressed the importance of both on
his Churches/' ^ The Church can make more use
of these valuable agencies in this generation than
at any other time in her history because they are
vastly more extensive and highly developed. It
should be remembered also that these facilities, by
increasing our knowledge of the heathen and their
accessibility, thereby have increased our obligation.

The printing-press has greatly multiplied the
power of the Church to disseminate Christian
truth. One of the marvels of the success of the
Church of the first generation is that so much
was accomplished without printed books. In
those days few individuals owned a copy of the
Scriptures. The Old Testament writings could be

1 " St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen," 34,
113

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

found rarely outside the synagogue. The method
of spreading a knowledge of the Word of God was
almost exclusively by oral instruction. The Apos-
tolic writings came into existence comparatively
late and their circulation progressed slowly. For
centuries after the time of the early Christians, " to
own a Bible was the privilege of princes, churches
and monasteries.^' * It required years to write out
a complete Bible. Even sixty years ago printing
was done on hand presses and only from one to
two hundred impressions could be taken in an
hour. Now there are presses which print, bind
and fold 96,000 papers in an hour.^ The inven-
tion of the linotype, the results of which Glad-
stone predicted would be "equally extensive and
beneficent to mankind,"^ enables one operator to
produce several fold as much composed matter as
any regular typesetter. This and the many other
improvements in the art of printing have, to a re-
markable degree, reduced the price of books. At
the beginning of the nineteenth century Bibles
were very expensive and consequently were very

'Edward W. Oilman, " The Hand of God in the Circula-
tion of the Bible," 3, 4.

* " Fifty Years in the Printing Business," in Scientific
American^ July 25, 1896, pp. 80, 81.

'John Southward, " Progress in Printing and the Graphic
Arts during the Victorian Era," 57.

EESOUKCES OF THE CHUECH

scarce. Carey's first Bengali Bible sold at abont
$20. A Bengali Bible can now be purchased for a
few cents. The price lists of the various Bible
societies show that in hundreds of languages the
New Testament can be obtained for a mere pit-
tance. No mechanical or serious financial diffi-
culty, therefore, stands in the way of giving the
Bible at once to every family under heaven.

The influence and protection of Christian gov-
ernments is an immense help to the work of mis-
sions. In no age in the past could the ambassa-
dors for Christ carry on their work with such
safety. Over one-third of the inhabitants of the
unevangelized world are under the direct sway of
Christian rulers. Moreover, the Protestant pow-
ers are in a position to exert an influence that will
make possible the free preaching of the Gospel to
the remaining two-thirds of the people of the earth
who have not heard of Christ. The ability of
Christian nations shown in thus bringing the
world within the range of their influence is, as the
Bishop of Newcastle says, "the measure of the
Church's responsibility to bring to them the Gos-
pel of Christ." i

Medical knowledge and skill is one of the chief
auxiliary factors employed by the Church. Its in-

• Church Missionary Intelligencer., Nov., 1898, p. 822.
115

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

flnence in opening the hearts of the heathen to
hear the Grospel and as an evidence in enforcing its
claims is apparently almost as marked as was the
exercise of miraculous gifts in the time of the
Apostles. Medical and sanitary science are also a
great boon in restoring and shielding the health
of the growing missionary force.

The methods and results of the study of natural
science and of other branches of Western learning
is one of the mightiest agencies at the disposal of
the Church. Its working and power were well
likened by Duff to that of a vast mine beneath the
structure of heathen ignorance, superstition and
prejudice. Such, emphatically, is its influence to-
day in India, Japan, China — in fact in all lands.

The Church not only has an unexampled oppor-
tunity to evangelize the world, as well as great
facilities at her disposal, but she also possesses
remarkable resources. Think of her membership.
According to Mulhall there are 140,000,000 Prot-
estants.^ In the British Isles, the United States
and Canada alone there are over 25,000,000 evan-
gelical Protestant church communicants.^ No

' " The Dictionary of Statistics," 513.

* " Official Year-Book of the Church of England. 1900; "
"Eree Church Hand-Book" (for 1899); "The Scottish
Church and University Almanac. 1900 ; " H. K. Carroll,

116

RESOURCES OF THE CHURCH

one will question the fact that among this vast
liumber are millions of spiritually-minded and
consecrated men and women. Contrast the mil-
lions of devoted Christians, whose religion is that
of the most enlightened nations of the world —
such as Great Britain, Germany, Holland, the
Scandinavian countries, the United States, Can-
ada, Switzerland and the Australasian and South
African colonies — with the few thousands consti-
tuting the small, unacknowledged and despised
sect which, on the Day of Pentecost, began the
evangelization of the then known and accessible
world. As we recall the achievements of that in-
fant Church, can we question the ability of the
Christians of our day so to distribute within the
present generation the Gospel messengers and
agencies that all mankind might have a full oppor-
tunity to know Christ as their Saviour and Lord?
The money power of the Church is enormous.
*'The true value of all tangible property in the
United States exclusive of Alaska, at the close of
the census period, 1890, amounted to $65,037,-
091,197.'^^ If members of evangelical churches

" Statistics of the Churches of the United States " (for 1899),
in The Christian Advocate^ March 15, 1900; "The Cana-
dian Almanac for the Year 1900."

' " Report on Wealth, Debt, and Taxation at the Eleventh
Census: 1890," Part II., 7.

117

.^'

,< '-fl

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

possessed a sum proportionate to their number,
which would seem to be a reasonable inference,
their share was fully $13,000,000,000. Of this
great amount they gave but one dollar out of every
$3,287 for foreign missions, or one-thirty-second
part of one per cent.^ Eegardless of their income,
if they had given but one-two-hundredth part of
their real and personal property, their contribu-
tion to foreign missions would have been over
$65,000,000, instead of less than $4,000,000. In
1898 Mr. Kobert E. Speer estimated that the share
of Christians in the wealth of America was $20,-
000,000,000, and that perhaps one-fiftieth of what
the Church adds to her wealth each year would
suffice, in addition to what is now given, to sup-
port a sufficient number of missionaries to evan-
gelize the world.^ Mr. G. T. Manley, of Cam-
bridge University, taking 100,000 as an outside
limit of the number of foreign workers required,
and assuming that Britain's share would be one-
third, estimates that the $50,000,000 required to
support them would be far more than supplied if
each communicant in Great Britain were to con-
tribute four cents a day.^ If only one-fourth of

' Josiah Strong, " Our Country," 248,
*" The Student Missionary Appeal," 211.
a The Student Volunteer (of Great Britain), March, 1897,
p. 53.

118

RESOURCES OF THE CHURCH

the Protestants of Europe and America gave but
one cent a day toward the evangelization of the
world, it would yield each year a fund of over
$100,000,000.

The giving to foreign missions has steadily in-
creased throughout the century. Professor War-
neck estimates that the collective gifts of all Prot-
estants to this object in 1800 were probably not
over $75,000.^ In 1899 they reached an aggregate
of over $19,000,000.2 To evangelize the world,
however, a much greater sum tiian this would be
required, and, as has been seen, the Church's sup-
ply is abundantly sufficient to meet the demand.
What is contributed comes from only a small frac-
tion of the membership of the Church. The ex-
amples of what is being given in different coun-
tries by single congregations, Sunday schools and
young people's societies, the situation and ability
of which are typical and not exceptional, prove
conclusively that the financial possibilities of the
Church are practically limitless. Dr. Josiah
Strong twenty years ago wrote : ''There is money
enough in the hands of Church-members to sow

' " Protestant Foreign Missions at the Junction of Two
Centuries : 1800-1900," in The Missionary Review of the
World, April, 1900, p. 259.

"Dennis, " Centennial Statistics," 17.
119

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

every acre of the earth with the seed of truth.
. . . God has intrusted to his children power
enough to give the Gospel to every creature by the
close of this century ; but it is being misapplied.
Indeed, the world would have been evangelized
long ago, if Christians had perceived the relations
of money to the Kingdom, and had accepted their
stewardship."^

Among the greatest resources of the Church are
the missionary societies, together with their work-
ers and agencies on the foreign field. At the be-
ginning of the nineteenth century there were six
Protestant missionary organizations. Dr. Dennis
gives 537 as the present number of foreign mission-
ary societies and auxiliaries.'^ Professor Warneck
expresses the opinion that there is probably too
much home machinery and that instead of in-
creasing the number of societies there should be
further consolidation.^ Without doubt there are
missionary organizations in sufficient number and
possessing sufficient strength and experience to
guide an enterprise indefinitely larger than the
present missionary operations of the Church.

In 1800 there were only about one hundred

» " Our Country," 251.
« " Centennial Statistics," 17, 18.

^The Missionary Review of the World,, April, 1900, p. 259.
130

EESOUKCES OF THE CHUECH

foreign missionaries. At the present time there
are 15,460, including women workers.^ This in-
dicates a gratifying increase. They are stationed
at important points throughout the larger part of
the unevangelized world. In no other undertak-
ing, secular or religious, is there a more capable
and devoted body of workers. They have devel-
oped and adapted varied and efficient methods for
the extension and upbuilding of Christ's Kingdom.
The object lesson of their lives and achievements
has enriched the Church and will serve always as
a guide and inspiration. While the present num-
ber of missionaries is large in comparison with that
of a century ago, there is need of an enlargement
of the foreign force. The Church easily can fur-
nish as many men and women as will be required.
According to the estimates of missionaries it would
be necessary to send out less than one-fiftieth of
the Christian young men and young women who
will go through the universities and colleges of
the United States and Canada within this genera-
tion. When the students of Europe are taken into
consideration, it will be seen that Christian coun-
tries can well afford to spare the workers required.
Their going forth would quicken and strengthen
rather than weaken the entire Church.

' Dennis, " Centennial Statistics," 17, 18.
121

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOELD

The Bible societies, although themselves vir-
tually missionary organizations, should receive
special notice because of the vital relation which
the Bible sustains to the world's evangelization.
There are no less than eighty separate Bible societies
besides many auxiliaries. A majority of them are
inter-denominational. Pre-eminently the largest
and most fruitful among them is the British and
Foreign Bible Society. It issues annually, ex-
clusive of British and Continental circulation,
nearly 4,500,000 Bibles and portions of the Scrip-
tures, and employs over 1,200 colporteurs and
Bible women.^ Its yearly expenditures are over
11,100,000.2 It is estimated that since 1804 all
the Bible societies combined have issued over
280,000,000 Bibles, Testaments, and portions of
the Scriptures.^ They have accomplished an im-
mense amount of preliminary work. In 1800 the
Bible existed in only sixty-six languages and dia-
lects, or those of but one-fifth the population of
the earth. ^ Dr. Oust states that there are " at

' " The Ninety-fifth Report of the British and Foreign
Bible Society."

'^ Ibid.

^ " Eighty-third Annual Eeport of the American Bible
Society," 210.

* Daniel Dorchester, " The Problem of Religious Prog-
ress," 666.

122

RESOURCES OF THE CHURCH

least two thousand mutually un-intelligible [lan-
guages] spoken,"^ and adds that though the
Scriptures have been translated into only 330 out
of 2,000 languages, " yet all the conquering Ian-
guages, and a great many of the second class, or
permanent languages, have been dealt with." ^

A still later authoritative statement is that of
Mr. J. Gordon Watt, Secretary of the British and
Foreign Bible Society, who reported early in 1899
that the Bible or some part of it had been trans-
lated into 406 languages and dialects.^ It is sig-
nificant that these translations are in the lan-
guages which are spoken by 1,200,000,000 people,
and that the remaining 1,600 languages are spoken
by less than 300,000,000. In view of this fact
the Earl of Harrowby does not exaggerate when
he says : " The past fifty years have almost seen
a repetition of the gift of tongues, because we have
produced translations of the Bible in something
like 140 tongues. . . . [It] is almost miracu-
lous."* There is still much work for the Bible
societies, namely, to prepare new translations for
peoples not yet reached, to complete certain trans-
lations, and to revise still others, not to mention

' " Normal Addresses on Bible Diffusion," 35.
* Ibid., 38. ^ " Four Hundred Tongues," 11.

*Cust, "Normal Addresses on Bible Diffusion," 27, 28.
133

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

the great work of further distribution. But the
marvelous success of the past century should en-
courage us to believe that, if the Church properly
sustains these invaluable agencies, before this gen-
eration closes each African, each Pacific Islander,
and each inhabitant of Asia will be able to read or
hear in his own tongue "the mighty works of
God." Of the same class of agencies are the mis-
sion publishing houses and special societies for dif-
fusing Christian literature. By expounding the
Gospel through a wide range of printed works,
reaching from primer to commentary, they help-
fully supplement the work of all missionaries.

There are other Christian organizations and
forces on the home field which greatly strengthen
the hands of the Church for her missionary task.
The different religious periodicals which go into
millions of Christian homes are a mighty force and
are in a position to guide and stimulate the army
of Christ's disciples to larger endeavor. The hun-
dreds of Christian colleges and seminaries which are
training the future leaders of society in Church,
in State and in the professions are rendering a
vital service to the cause of Christ in the world.

The organized Christian movements among stu-
dents constitute one of the largest and most potent
forces in the Church. There are now fourteen
134

RESOUKCES OF THE CHURCH

great national and international student organiza-
tions, namely, the American and Canadian Stu-
dent Young Men's Christian Association ; the
American Student Young Women's Christian As-
sociation ; the Australasian Student Christian
Union ; the British College Christian Union ; the
College Young Men's Christian Association of
China ; the French Christian Student Movement ;
the German Christian Students' Alliance ; the
Intercollegiate Young Men's Christian Association
of India and Ceylon ; the Netherlands Students'
Christian Union ; the Student Young Men's Chris-
tian Association Union of Japan ; the Scandina-
vian University Christian Movement ; the Stu-
dents' Christian Association of South Africa ; the
Student Christian Movement in Mission Lands,
and the Swiss Christian Students' Association.
These movements have been united into a World's
Student Christian Federation. They comprise
over 1,400 separate Christian Associations, with a
total membership of nearly 65,000 students and
professors.^ They are seeking to make the univer-
sities and colleges strongholds and propagating
centers for aggressive Christianity. Under their
influence an increasing number of students are

' " Survey of the Christian Student MovementB of the
World."

125

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

year by year accepting Christ as their Saviour and
Lord. They have created a remarkable revival in
Bible study. The Student Volunteer Movement
for Foreign Missions, which is organically related
to the other student movements as their missionary
department, has in itself become a mighty factor
in the world's evangelization. It has enrolled
thousands of students as volunteers for foreign
service, and has been truthfully characterized as
the greatest uprising for the evangelization of the
world since the days of the Apostles. Surely this
has a Providential significance. " On the one
hand the world — not half of which has yet been
evangelized — lies open to the Christian Church ;
on the other hand, men and women undoubtedly
moved and prepared by God, in increasing but
still inadequate numbers, are ready to go. This
can be no chance coincidence." ^ Of almost equal
importance is the influence of the student organi-
zations in enlisting in the enterprise of world-wide
missions the active interest of students who are
to be leaders of the Church on the home field. It
should be pointed out that all of these student
movements have arisen during the present genera-
tion. Thus it will be recognized that the Church

' Professor H. C. G. Moule. " Proceedings of the Church
Missionary Society. 1897-98," 11.
136

RESOUECES OF THE CHURCH

in possessing this important recruiting and train-
ing agency is equipped as in no preceding age for a
world-embracing evangelistic campaign.

The various Christian young people's organiza-
tions which have been developed within the past
two decades have added largely to the power of the
Church. In North America alone the Young Peo-
ple's Society of Christian Endeavor, the Epworth
League, the Baptist Young People's Union, the
Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip, the Young
People's Christian Union, the Westminster League,
the Luther League, and kindred movements have
nearly 100,000 local societies and a total member-
ship of fully 5,500,000.^ It is a great army — equal
to the number of people in Holland or Sweden or
Canada. These young people themselves, if pro-
perly educated and guided, are able to give and
raise each year a sum large enough to support all
the foreign missionaries who would be required to
accomplish the evangelization of the world. They
are young people ; it is not too late for them to
form proper habits of giving, praying and working
for missions. They are organized ; therefore it
is possible to communicate to them missionary im-
pulses and to secure their concerted action.

' Based on letters from the officers of the different move-
ments. Archives of the Student Volunteer Movement.
127

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

The Sunday School is in some respects the
largest undeveloped missionary resource of the
Church. In 1890 the number of children in the
Sunday schools of Protestant lands exceeded
22,000,000.^ If they were trained to give even
two cents a week per member, it would yield an
amount greater than the present total missionary
gifts of Christendom. That this is not an unrea-
sonable estimate is proved by the actual practice
of many Sunday schools.

The native Church is the human resource which
affords largest promise for the evangelization of
the world. It is not only an impressive monument
to the power of Christian missions, but an earnest
of the vast fruitage which may be expected within
our generation. It constitutes both the end of
evangelization and its principal means. At the
present time the native Church has fully 1,300,000
communicants and over 4,400,000 adherents.^
The activity, earnestness and liberality of these
native Christians compares favorably with that
of the Church members in any Christian land.
There are about 77,000 evangelists, pastors, teach-
ers, catechists, medical helpers and other native

' Dorchester, " The Problem of Religious Progress," dia*
gram XVII.
■■' Dennis, " Centennial Statistics," 17.
128

RESOURCES OF THE CHURCH

workers, and their nnmber and efficiency are
rapidly increasing.^ There are over 1,000,000
children and young people in the various mission
schools and institutions of higher learning ; and
of this number at least 140,000 are in mission col-
leges, training institutes and high schools.^ From
the ranks of these students and their successors
are to come the hundreds of thousands of evan-
gelists, teachers, Bible women and other workers
who will be needed to preach Christ to the multi-
tudinous inhabitants of the unevangelized world.
This suggests again the significance of the Chris-
tian movement among the students of non-Chris-
tian lands. It is doing much to solve the problem
of the world's speedy and thorough evangelization
by uniting the native Christian students, first, to
lead their fellow students to Christ, and then,
after their preparation is completed, to go forth to
evangelize their own countrymen. In view of the
extent and possibilities of the native Christian
forces, surely the Church is able to accomplish far
more to-day for the world's evangelization than in
any preceding age.

The Divine resources of the Church are im-
measurably more powerful and more important
than all others. The evangelization of the world

' Dennis, " Centennial Statistics," 17. " Ibid., 21.

129

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

is not man's enterprise but God's. Christ at the
right hand of God is the leader of the missionary
movement, and with Him resides all power in
heaven and on earth. The Spirit of God is as able
to shake communities now as in the days of St.
Peter and St. John. The "Word of God possesses
dynamic and transforming power. Prayer can
still remove mountains. Macedonian visions are
yet vouchsafed unto men. Faith is the victory
that overcomes the world.

Why has God made the whole world known and
accessible to our generation ? Why has He pro-
vided us with such wonderful agencies ? Not that
the forces of evil might utilize them. Not for the
purpose of promoting strife and avarice. Not for
us to waste or leave unused. Such vast prepara-
tions must have been made to further some mighty
and beneficent purpose. Every one of these won-
derful facilities has been intended primarily to
serve as a handmaid to the sublime enterprise of
extending and building up the Kingdom of Jesus
Christ in all the world. The hand of God in opening
door after door among the nations of mankind, in
unlocking the secrets of nature and in bringing to
light invention after invention, is beckoning the
Church of our day to larger achievements. If the
Church instead of theorizing and speculating will
130

RESOUKCES OF THE CHURCH

improve her opportunities, facilities and resources,
it seems entirely possible to fill the earth with the
knowledge of Christ before the present generation
passes away. With literal truth it may be said
that ours is an age of unparalleled opportunity.
" Providence and revelation combine to call the
Church afresh to go in and take possession of the
world for Christ."^ Everything seems to be
ready for a general and determined engagement
of the forces of Christendom for the world-wide
proclamation of the Gospel. " Once the world
seemed boundless and the Church was poor and
persecuted. No wonder the work of evangelizing
the world within a reasonable time seemed hope-
less. Now steam and electricity have brought the
world together. The Church of God is in the
ascendant. She has well within her control the
power, the wealth, and the learning of the world.
She is like a strong and well appointed army in
the presence of the foe. The only thing she needs
is the Spirit of her Leader and a willingness to
obey His summons to go forward. The victory
may not be easy but it is sure."^

• " Memorial of the Student Volunteer Missionary Union."
The Student Volunteer (of Great Britain), New Series, No.
15, p. 77.

* Dr. Calvin W. Mateer, letter in Archives of the Student
Volunteer Movement.

131

VII

THE POSSIBILITY OF EVANGELIZING THE
WORLD WITHIN A GENERATION AS VIEWED
BY LEADERS IN THE CHURCH

In 1818 Gordon Hall and Samuel Newell, mis-
sionaries of the American Board in India, issued a
burning appeal to Christians. It appeared as a
pamphlet entitled " The Conversion of the World :
or the claims of Six Hundred Millions, and the
Ability and Duty of the Churches Kespecting
Them.'' In it they maintained : " It is the duty
of the churches to send forth preachers in sufficient
numbers to furnish the means of instructioti a7id
salvation to the whole world. . . . As to the
number of preachers, the same reasons which prove
the duty of sending one, equally prove the duty of
sending as many as are requisite to fulfil the com-
mand of Christ, to preach the Gospel to every crea-
ture. If we send half a dozen missionaries to a
country where there are as many millions of souls,
we are too apt to imagine that we have discharged
our duty to that country — we have sent them the
Gospel. The fact however is, we have only sent the
132

OPINIONS OF CHRISTIAN LEADERS

Gospel to a few individuals in that nation. . .
The thing that Christ commands is to preach the
Gospel to every creature, — not merely to a few in-
dividuals in every nation/' *

One of the most impressive appeals ever sent by
the missionaries to the Church at home appeared A^X
in 1836, and was entitled " The Duty of the Pres-
ent Generation to Evangelize the World : An Ap-
peal from the Missionaries at the Sandwich Islands
to their Friends in the United States. " All the
members of the mission united in the opinion that
" the present generation can preach the gospel to
the heathen. The men are already educated.
Other means are ready. God requires it as a pres-
ent duty. . . . The world has long been un-
der the influence of this scheme, of committing
the heathen to the next generation." ^

In 1858 during the time of the greatest revival
the American churches have ever known. Dr. Joel
Parker, one of the leading pastors of New York,
preached a sermon on " The Duty of the Present
Generation of Christians to Evangelize the World,"
in which he said : " It is the duty of Christians to
evangelize the whole world immediately. The
present generation is competent under God to
achieve the work. There are means enough in the

• P 9. « Pp. 34, 35.

133

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOULD

power of the Church to do it. There is money that
can be counted in millions that can be spared with-
out producing any serious want. There are men
enough for the missionary work. If ten thousand
should leave us for heathen shores in the course of
a twelve-month, going out in companies of from
ten to fifty, they would scarcely be missed from our
country. The Church, we have reason to believe
would even be strengthened by it. Such a revival
of Christian zeal would be the means of converting
ten times that number."^

The Earl of Shaftesbury, in an address given at
the conference on missions held in Liverpool in
1860, speaking of the condition of the world, said :
" Do consider, that at this moment the numbers of
those who do not believe in the name of our Lord
are ten, twenty, perhaps thirtyfold, those to whom
the knowledge of salvation has been administered.
Eecollect, that though the state of things be so,
the world has been for eighteen centuries in this
condition ; and, during the latter part of these cen-
turies, it has been in the power of those who hold
the truth, having means enough, having knowl-
edge enough, and having opportunity enough, to
evangelize the globe fifty times over."^

Dr. Joseph Angus in 1871 preached a notable
» Pp. 21, 22. ' " Conference on Miasions," 322.

134

OPINIONS OF CHRISTIAN LEADERS

sermon before the Baptist Missionary Society on
*' Apostolic Missions : the Gospel for Every Crea-
ture." It has been printed and given a wide cir-
culation. In this sermon Dr. Angus expressed the
opinion that "if the Christian Church will give
itself to this business of preaching the Gospel, it
has wealth enough and men enough to preach it,
in the next fifteen or twenty years, to every crea-
ture. All we need is a ' willing mind ' — a Pente-
costal spirit of prayer, and faith and zeal."^

The words of Simeon Calhoun, uttered many
years ago, still ring with confidence: "It is my
deep conviction, and I say it again and again, that
if the Church of Christ were what she ought to
be, twenty years would not pass away till the story
of the Cross will be uttered in the ears of every
living man." 2

At the General Conference of the Protestant
Missionaries of China, held at Shanghai in 1877,
the adopted report of the Committee on Appeal
to the Churches contains the following weighty
statement : " How long shall this fearful ruin of
souls continue ? Ought we not to make an effort
to save China in this generation ? Is God's power
limited ? Is the efficacy of prayer limited ? This

' P. 32.

* Quoted in "The Evangelization of the World," 73.
135

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

grand achievement is in the hands of the Church.
. . . We want China emancipated from the
thraldom of sin in this generation. It is possi-
ble. Our Lord has said, "^According to your
faith be it unto you.' The Church of God can do
it, if she be only faithful to her great commission.
. . Standing on the borders of this vast
empire, we, therefore — one hundred and twenty
missionaries, from almost every evangelical re-
ligious denomination in Europe and America, as-
sembled in General Conference at Shanghai, and
representing the whole body of Protestant Mis-
sionaries in China — feeling our utter insufficiency
for the great work so rapidly expanding, do most
earnestly plead, with one voice, calling upon the
whole Church of God for more laborers. And we
will as earnestly and unitedly plead at the Throne
of Grace that the Spirit of God may move the
hearts of all, to whom this appeal comes, to cry, —
*Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?' And
may this spirit be communicated from heart to
heart, from church to church, from continent to
continent, until the whole Christian world shall
be aroused, and every soldier of the cross shall
come to the help of the Lord against the mighty." ^

' " Records of the General Conference of the Protestant
Missionaries of China," 476, 478. The Committee which
136

OPINIONS OF CHRISTIAN LEADERS

Professor Samuel H. Kellogg, of the Western
Theological Seminary, after he had been for years
a missionary in India, wrote : " I have been pro-
foundly interested in the suggestion that has been
thrown out of late in several quarters — that the
Church of Christ should make it its business to
see to it that the Gospel is carried to all the world
before the present generation shall have passed
away. That the Church of Christ as now existing
on the earth has the full ability, both in men and

prepared this appeal was composed as follows : Mr. A.
Wylie, of the British and Foreign Bible Society ; Rev. L. H.
Gulick, M.D., of the American Bible Society; Rev. A.
Williamson, LL.D., of the United Presbyterian Church of
Scotland; Rev. C. Douglas, LL.D., of the English Presby-
terian Church ; Rev. C. Goodrich, of the American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions ; Rev. G. John, of the
London Missionary Society; Rev. M. T. Yates, D.D., of
the Southern Baptist Convention; Rev. J. H. Taylor, M.D.,
of the China Inland Mission; Rev. J. W. Lambuth, of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South; Rev. E. H. Thomson,
of the Protestant Episcopal Church ; Rev. S. L. Baldwin, of
the Methodist Episcopal Church; Rev. J. V. N. Talmage,
D.D., of the Reformed Church; Rev. J. R. Goddard, of the
Baptist Missionary Union ; Rev. C. R. Mills, of the Presby-
terian Church ; Rev. B. Helm, of the Southern Presbyterian
Church ; Rev. D. Hill, of the English AVesleyan Mission ;
Rev. F. F. Gough, of the Church Missionary Society ; Rev.
R. Lechler, of the Basel Mission ; Rev. C. P. Scott, of the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel ; Rev. W. N. Hall,
of the Methodist New Connection, England ; and Rev. R.
Swallow, of the United Methodist Free Church, England.
137

m^'A^- \Ji 'f^^\AH .(M^^M-'

\l\lV\

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

money, for this work, no man can doubt. And if
she has the ability, who can doubt for a moment
that it is her bounden duty ? Is the Church of
Jesus Christ, so rich to-day in gifted men and al-
most boundless wealth, with almost every door in
all the world thrown open to her in answer to her
prayer, is she prepared to take the responsibility
of putting off the kingdom ? " ^

Dr. E. Q. Wilder, who had been a missionary in
India for thirty years, in an editorial which he
wrote while he was in charge of The Missionary
Review said ; ** Those dear brethren who seem to
think and argue that some minds are too ardent on
this subject, that this work must be prosecuted for
generations and centuries and ages yet to come,
before we can expect its completion, overlook the
fact that thousands of heathens have been fully
enlightened and won to Christ within the current
generation who never before heard a word of Gos-
pel truth ; [and] that if a sufficient Christian force
were enlisted the whole 800,000,000 of heathens
might have been as thoroughly evangelized as
these thousands, in the same period of time."^

In 1887, Dr. Judson Smith, Secretary of the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign

> The New York Evangelist, Dec. 29, 1881, p. 1.
* The Missionary Review, Vol. V., 188.

138

OPINIONS OF CHRISTIAN LEADERS

Missions, in emphasizing the present opportunity
of the Church, said : " What hinders the im-
mediate effort to plant the Gospel in every nation
and island and home in all the earth within the
next few decades ? Nothing but the faltering
zeal and purpose of the mass of Christian believers
now on the earth. That precisely is the critical
question. Are we, the Christiatis of to-day,
awake to these facts and responsive to the claims
of this glorious work ? Do we understand that
this vast responsibility rests upon us 9 That it is
possible now, as never before in the world's his-
tory, to preach the Gospel to aU the natio7is9
And do we mean, God helping, that this work
shall be done ere we die ? This is the deep sig-
nificance of the hour to this generation." ^

In an address at the Centenary Conference on
Foreign Missions, held in London in 1888, Dr. A.
Sutherland, Secretary of the Missionary Society of
the Methodist Church in Canada, expressed his < , I
belief that "the power latent in the Churches, if , .vnHi
properly utilised and directed, would be amply \ I
sufficient for the speedy evangelisation of the ;^%w4>
world." 2 XH

' " Seventy-seventh Annual Report of the American Board
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions," p. XXiIX.

' " Report of the Centenary Conference on the Protestant
Missions of the World," Vol. I., 144.

139

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

Mr. Eugene Stock, the Editorial Secretary of
the Church Missionary Society, writing in 1896
on the evangelization of the world in this genera-
tion, gave the following considerations, among
others, bearing upon the possibility of the under-
taking : " Some reader may urge, it has never
been done yet. No one generation has been actu-
ally evangelized. True; yet that is no proof of
its impossibility; and the fact that past genera-
tions of Christians failed to accomplish their
task, or rather, never tried (except perhaps in
the first century, and even that is very doubt-
ful), is no reason why we should shrink from
ours. 'Give ye them to eat,' said Christ to
His disciples ; and if ever there was an im-
possible task. He gave them one then ; yet it
was accomplished. But that was a miracle, urges
our imaginary friend. Well, if it be allowed for
argument's sake that the day of miracles in the
material world is past, most assuredly the day of
miracles in the spiritual world is not past ; nay,
we are in the very noon of it. Yet perhaps we
undervalue that development of even material
things which daily tends to make material miracles
less necessary. Half a century ago, who would
have dared to predict that within much less than
that time we should be able to communicate in a
140

OPINIONS OF CHRISTIAN LEADERS

few minutes simultaneously with New York and
Constantinople and Cape Coast Castle and Johan-
nesburg and Fuh-Chow ? The daily and hourly
cablegrams from all parts of the world are so
much a matter of course, that the Secretary of
State for the Colonies, when, on a memorable recent
occasion, he received no news from South Africa
less than twenty-four hours old, went off at mid-
night to the office of the Telegraph Company to
ask what had happened to the wires. This is but
a single illustration. The world is shrinking fast
in respect of distances to be covered. And God
has flung open door after door that had been
closed for centuries ; so that what was utterly im-
possible when the Church Missionary Society was
founded is perfectly feasible now.""" ^

At the Lambeth Conference of Bishops of the '^ "^-^
Anglican Communion, held in London in 1897,
the report of the Committee on Foreign Missions,
composed of fifty-six bishops, contains the follow-
ing words regarding the missionary movement
among students : ''Your Committee observe with
gratitude to God that a very large number of stu-
dents in universities and colleges throughout the
world have realised so keenly the call to missionary
work that they have enrolled themselves in a

' Chv/rch Missionary Intelligencer^ April, 1896, p. 255.
141

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOKLD

Student Volunteer Missionary Union, and have
taken as their watchword 'The Evangelization of
the World in This Generation.'" ^

The Bishop of Newcastle, in the paper which he
presented at the Church Congress in England in
1898, gives the following facts pointing to the pos-
sibility of the world-wide proclamation of the Gos-
pel within our day : " When I consider the obliga-
tion, not of clergy alone, but of the whole Church,
to ' make disciples of all the nations ; ' the extra-
ordinary development of civilization which has
made all nations accessible within this century ;
the enormous wealth accumulated by Christian na-
tions of the earth ; the wonderful results given to
the earnest labours of a comparatively few men and
women (samples, surely, of what awaits the labours
of an awakened Church) ; the growing appreciation
within the last generation of the duty and blessing
of evangelizing the world, as is illustrated by the
growth of the income of the Church Missionary
Society in thirty years from £153,921 to £331,598,
with a corresponding increase of staff, and by the
upgrowth within a few years of this remarkable
movement amongst students in various colleges
which has led to a study of missionary literature
and of missionary problems, and to offers of per-

' " Conference of Bishops of the Anglican Communion," 70
142

OPINIONS OF CHRISTIAN LEADERS

sonal service beyond all former precedent, — I am
compelled to say that I think the watchword pre-
sented to us by the Student Volunteer Missionary
Union, and as authoritatively explained, to be
justified by our Lord's command, and by the care-
ful consideration of the facts of the world's prog-
ress." ^

Dr. Jacob Chamberlain, a missionary of the Re-
formed Church in India, appealed thus to the
delegates at the Bombay Decennial Conference in
1893-3 : " ' Christ for India and India for Christ,
— let that be our enthusiastic shout, backed up by
enthusiastic deeds, and by God's blessing, we will
bring revolted India into Christ's Kingdom within
the lives of those now born." ^

The Bishop of Mombasa, writing at the close of
several years* missionary work in Western India,
expressed his conviction that " there are Christians
enough in India to evangelize all her peoples and
constantly to make the Gospel known in all her
villages, if hut God's Holy Spii'it come upon them
for the worh, and the Lord's Hand provide the
means for those who preach the Gospel to 'live
of the Gospel,' as He surely will. The Christians

' Church Missionary Intelligencer^ Nov., 1898, p. 822.
* " Report of the Third Decennial Missionary Conference,"
I., 129.

143

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

know the languages. They know the caste system.
They are just what the Lord has need of. Oh
that one and all would ' yield as alive from the
dead/ and that the Lord would take them by
thousands and by thousands for the evangelization
of India ! So in China, so in Africa, and else-
where. The Lord take hold of the Christians of
the soil for a ' Sanctuary and for a dominion \' "^

Dr. J. C. K. Ewing, the Principal of the Forman
Christian College at Lahore, India, has expressed
the following opinion : " I regard the idea of the
evangelization of the world in this generation as
entirely Scriptural. There is not a hint in the
Word to lead us to adopt the popular theory that
it is the Church's task to strive generation after
generation to gather out the few. ' The Gospel
to every creature ' — that means to every man and
woman living now. It is the fault of the Church
if from amongst the present rising generation any
advance to old age without hearing of Christ and
His salvation.'' ^

The oldest missionary of the Canadian Presby-
terian Church in India, Kev. J. F. Campbell, has
written as follows : " Looking at it, then, as
coolly and unconcernedly as we can, we are con-

■ Letter in Archives of tiie Student Volunteer MoTement.
2 Ibia.

144

OPINIONS OF CHRISTIAN LEADERS

vinced that, whatever may or may not have been
the case before, the professed people of Christ now
living have it in their power within one generation
to give every responsible human being the chance
of intelligently accepting Christ as his Saviour
from sin, if he is willing. All that is needed is
that those who are called Christians, and with
their lips acknowledge Him as true Teacher and
rightful Lord, really believe His words in their
inmost hearts and yield themselves to His service
accordingly." ^

Kev. S. M. Zwemer, F.R.G.S., a Reformed
Church missionary in Arabia, in writing about his
own field, which is one of the most difficult lands
in the world to evangelize, says : " At the Student
Volunteer Convention in Cleveland [in 1898] I
felt, and feel now, that Arabia could easily be
evangelized within the next tiiirty years if it were
not for the wicked selfishness of Christians. As
I looked over the vast audience I said to myself,
With one hundred of these men Avilling to endure
hardness, and $100,000 to send them out, God
could shake the very pillars of Mohammed^s tem-
ple and bring glory to His Son by wrenching back
Arabia from the grasp of Satan." ^

' Letter in Archives of the Student Volunteer Movement
2 Ibid.

145

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

Eev. Christian Borchgrevink, M.D., who has
labored for over thirty years in Madagascar nnder
the Norwegian Missionary Society (Stavanger, Nor-
way), gives his opinion regarding the evangeliza-
tion of his part of the world field : " I wonld not
regard it as impossible to evangelize in this gen-
eration the Southern two-thirds of Madagascar if
the progress of Christian effort is proportionate
in the next thirty-three years to what it has been
during the past thirty-three years, during which
period of time my missionary society has been la-
boring in that island. The Northern one-third of
Madagascar has no Protestant mission within it,
but the Jesuits intend to keep this field exclusively
to themselves. I fully believe that the half a mil-
lion inhabitants in the Northern one-third can also
be evangelized in this generation if a sufficient
number of missionaries go thither." *

For twenty years Rev. G. A. Landes has worked
in Brazil as a missionary of the Presbyterian
Church in the United States of America. The
following is his estimate of what would be required
to evangelize that great field : " There is no other
country in the world where the difficulty of reach-
ing the people is so great, owing to the immense
territory over which they are scattered. However,

' Letter in Archives of the Student Volunteer Movement.
146

OPINIONS OF CHRISTIAN LEADERS

notwithstanding this difficulty, I am of the opin-
ion that the mass of the people in Brazil could be
evangelized within this generation by a great en-
largement of the agencies at present employed by
the missionary societies. To evangelize Brazil in
this generation it would be necessary to augment
the present ordained missionary force by 120 more
ordained missionaries including their wives, and
that the present teaching force be increased by 200
good Christian teachers. With this new army of
workers, guided by God's Word, Spirit, and Prov-
idence, I believe a knowledge of the Gospel could
be given, in this generation, to the mass of the
people in Brazil.'' ^

Rev. Sydney L. Gulick, missionary of the Amer-
ican Board in Japan, giving considerations show-
ing why Japan can and should be evangelized in
this generation, says: "The Gospel easily can be
preached to every person in Japan within the next
thirty years if the Christians of America and Great
Britain determine to do it and use common sense
in doing it. Every door is open. The millions
are ready to listen and multitudes are eager to
know of this religion of the West. Japan is in a
formative stage ; old thoughts and customs are
rapidly passing away. No generation in Japan in

' Letter in Archives of the Student Volunteer Movement.
147

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOELD

the past has ever been so plastic and open to the
Gospel as the present one. Unless we give it
Christianity it will grow np without any specific
religious instruction. Surely these are strong
enough reasons for evangelizing Japan in this
generation/' ^

Dr. J. D. Davis, one of the oldest missionaries
in Japan and one who for years labored with
Neesima in the Doshisha, gives the following state-
ment on the subject : "■ The duty and responsibil-
ity of the Church to ' preach the Gospel to every
creature ' within one generation is very clear. The
doors are open ; the Bible is ready in the language
of most of the nations ; the world is narrowed ; it
can almost be said, there is no more sea. Distance
is being annihilated on sea and on land. The
Church possesses numbers sufficient to furnish
and support the workers necessary. There is ma-
chinery enough ; there are wheels enough. It
is only needed that the Spirit of God shall move
within the wheels. Thousands or tens of thousands
of ' volunteers ' cannot do this work unless the
Church itself is aroused to send them and sus-
tain them and their work with its prayers and
money. The Church has had to wait for the doors
of the nations to be opened, for the world to be

' Letter in Archives of the Student Volunteer Movement.
148

OPINIONS OF CHRISTIAN LEADEES

narrowed, for the Bible to be translated ; but the
Church has no need to wait even one day for the
factor which is lacking to accomplish this work
in one generation. God waits to give it ; Christ is
ready to baptize all hearts with the 'Holy Ghost
and with fire/ so that all selfishness will be con-
sumed with love, and all money will be melted and
reminted and stamped with the image and super-
scription of Christ. Were this done, the un-
churched and unsaved millions of the so-called
Christian nations would be won to Christ and the
unconverted millions who have never heard would
hear the Gospel within one generation." ^

The considerations mentioned by Dr. S. H.
Wainright, Principal of the Southern Methodist
College at Kobe, Japan, should not be overlooked :
'' May we hope to evangelize the world in the
present generation ? "We cannot give a negative
answer, for no man has a right to set limitations
to the power and resources of God, nor can any-
one say concerning the possibilities of human
faith, thus far thou canst go, but no farther." ^

Dr. Samuel A. Moffett, a Presbyterian mission-
ary in Korea, indicates the conditions on which
that country might be evangelized in our lifetime :

' Letter in Archives of the Student Volunteer Movement.
« Ibid.

149

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

" Korea can be evangelized within a generation ;
but in order to accomplish it there is needed an
added force of forty thoroughly qualified mission-
aries of enthusiastic, victorious faith in God and
His message. It would also be necessary to have
on the home field a Church willing to send them
and to stand back of them in prayer, led by pas-
tors who will influence their people to appreciate
the privilege as well as the duty of the Church to
perform its God-given office of world-wide evan-
gelization."^

Dr. John Koss, who has been working in Man-
churia for nearly thirty years as a representative
of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland,
writes : " It was largely overlooked formerly — I
am not sure that it is fully understood yet — that
in the work of making the Kingdom of God coex-
tensive with man God and man are ' fellow- work-
ers.' In the spiritual as in the material harvest
man must perform his share or no grain will be
garnered. As soon would we expect to see ripe
grain walk into the farmer's yard as to see the
Kingdom of God planted in the world without
human labor. To secure the material harvest man
was ordained to do so in the sweat of his brow.
To secure the spiritual harvest the ' laborers ' are

■ Letter in Archives of the Student Volunteer Movement.
150

OPINIONS OF CHRISTIAN LEADERS

commanded to go ' into all the world.' God will
do His part. He will not do man's. The world
would have been evangelized a thousand years ago
had the Christian Church done its duty. And
God will do His part any year in the 20th century
if man will but do his." ^

The Chinese Recorder contains an appeal by
Eev. J. C. Garritt, a missionary of the Presbyte-
rian Church, from which the following is taken :
" China for Christ in this generation. Why not ?
. . . In this generation what doubt is there that
China Avill be swept irresistibly into the stream of
the world's competition ? The West will not wait
till a later generation. Why should the Church
wait till a later generation? . . . How splendidly
equipped the Church is to-day to win not China
only, but the world for Christ in one generation !
What resources are at the command of the nations
that the Church does not possess ? Worldly power
and prestige certainly do not count for as much as
the power of the Maker of the world, by whom and
for whom all things were created and in whom all
things consist ! If the world has money the Church
does not lack. If the world has men, brains, wis-
dom, the Church has men, talents, prudence. If
the world has agents to watch for, report, and take

• Letter in Archives of the Student Volunteer Movement.
151

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

advantage of opportunities, the Church has her
agents too. . . . God is on our side, and His
infinite power, wisdom and grace can never fail.
. . . 0 Church of the living God ! Take this
one word, IMMANUEL, and plant the standard
of the cross in every land under the sun ! " ^

Dr. Griffith John, writing after nearly half a
century of experience in China as the representa-
tive of the London Missionary Society, asserts his
belief that '^ it is possible to evangelize the world
in this generation if the Church will but do her
duty. The trouble is not with the heathen. A
dead Church will prevent it, if it is prevented.
Why should it not be accomplished ? God will have
all men to be saved and come unto the knowledge
of the truth. The resources of the Church are
boundless. Let the will of the Church be brought
into line with the will of God, and nothing will
be found to be impossible. May God grant it ! " ^

Dr. A. P. Parker, a missionary of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, in China, writes : "The
idea of the evangelization of the world in this
generation is reasonable. The plan is perfectly
feasible. There are men enough and there is
money enough in the Protestant churches of

' The Chinese Recorder, Aug., 1899, pp. 387-390.
' Letter in Archives of the Student Volunteer Movement.
152

OPINIONS OF CHKISTIAN LEADEKS

Europe and America to do the work. It can be
done. And it ought to be done." ^

Eev. James Jackson, Principal of the Kiukiang
Institute in China, gives his opinion as follows :
" Our responsibility surely is to the men of our
own generation. No Christian will venture to say
that our Lord has laid upon His Church an im-
possible task, or that it is His will and purpose
that generation after generation of men should
pass away into the unseen world without the op-
portunity of hearing and embracing the way of
salvation, the knowledge of which He has en-
trusted to his Church and for the spread of which
He has made His disciples responsible. "^

Mr. Robert E. Speer, Secretary of the Board of jflUfT
Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in
the United States of America, in speaking at the
First International Convention of the Student
Volunteer Movement, called attention to the neces-
sity of a right attitude of mind and heart toward
the subject if one would believe in the evangeliza-
tion of the world in this generation as a possibility.
He said : " Our position on the question of possi-
bility will be largely determined by our views of
its desirability. If we do not think we want the

' Letter in Archives of the Student Volunteer Movement,
«Ibid.

153

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

world evangelized, we will not have to search far
before we find it impossible to evangelize it. But
if to-night, face to face with our glorified Master,
we catch His Spirit, hear His word, and are will-
ing to do His will, and will open our hearts a little
to catch that other cry that comes across the seas
to-night from every heathen land, I do not think we
can refrain from brushing away a great many objec-
tions to the possibility of the evangelization of the
world in this generation that may now confront
our view. . . . This is not a human issue.
God is in it. I have said that there is nothing in
the world or the Church, except its disobedience,
to render the evangelization of the world in this
generation an impossibility. . . . It is possible
so far as God is concerned. Nay more, it finds its
pledge and inspiration in Him. We often talk as
though God was not interested in this question.
We enumerate our human forces and look over the
field to be possessed, and, just as we are hopeful
or despondent, say it can or cannot be done. But
this leaves out the mightiest force of all. You re-
call the question said to have been asked Luther
by his wife in one of his despairing moods, — a
question, I believe, alleged to have been addressed
to Frederick Douglass also, by Sojourner Truth, —
* Is God dead ? ' I repeat it to those of you who
154

OPINIONS OF CHRISTIAN LEADERS

doubt and hesitate to-night: *Is God dead ?' If
we cannot rely on Him I am willing to surrender
the whole question."^

Dr. Henry C. Mabie, Corresponding Secretary of
the American Baptist Missionary Union, writes
thus upon the subject : " I have no hesitation in
insisting upon the universal duty in Christendom
everywhere of immediate application, without re-
serve, of all our powers to the evangelization of
the whole world. Certainly all will agree that the
duty of each generation to its generation is im-
perative and universal. Then also I believe that
the Church has never risen to anything like a
comprehension of what God waits to do when His
Church will get into line. The surprises of grace,
the miracles of converting power, the rapid tri-
umphs of the Gospel would astonish the whole
earth if God were really put to the test. The
master temptation of the devil is to secure pro-
crastination on the part of the Church respecting
the world's evangelization. Of course this tempta-
tion should be resisted at every point, and if it
were nations would soon be bom in a day."^

' " Report of the First InterDational Convention of the
Student Volunteer Movement," 75, 79.

■^ Letter in Archives of the Student Volunteer Move-
ment.

155

THE EVANGELIZATION OP THE WORLD

Dr. George Eobson, of Scotland, the editor of
The Missionary Record in a review of Professor
Warneck's paper on " The Modern Theory of the
Evangelization of the World/' says : "If the
Church would realise her relations to her enthroned
Lord, if she would duly awake to her opportuni-
ties, responsibilities, and resources, and if her re-
sources were more fully consecrated to the service
of the Lord, there would be little difficulty, within
one generation, in covering the whole open field
of heathendom with centres of evangelisation suf-
ficiently near each other to diffuse the gospel over
the intervening spaces." ^

Eev. Alexander MacKennal, President of the
Free Church Council, in an address at the Inter-
national Student Volunteer Conference in London
in January, 1900, said : "We seemed to recognize
in the beating of the young heart towards that
nobler possibility, the motto of which [the evan-
gelization of the world in this generation] is upon
this platform before me — I say, we saw in that
the indications of something deeper than belonged
to the thoughts and counsels of man. For my-
self, ... I felt first the audacity of the pro-
posal, then the reasonableness of the proposal, and

' The Missionary Record of the United Presbyterian
Church, October 1, 1897^ p. 299.
156

OPINIONS OF CHRISTIAN LEADERS

lastly that the confidence of young men and
women would carry it into effect I was sure. It
seemed to me that the very finger of God was
pointing the way and the Spirit of God inspiring
the endeavor." ^

At the London Volunteer Conference the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury closed his address on "Evan-
gelization the Primary Duty of the Church '' with
the following statement regarding the possibility
of the evangelization of the world : " The aim of
this Union [Student Volunteer Missionary Union]
is that the Name of Christ shall be made known
to all the nations of the world within this present
generation, that is, that before those who are now
living shall altogether pass away, there shall not
be one spot upon the earth where the name oS
Christ, and the Cross of Christ, and the Love
of Christ, and the Love of God the Father is not
known, whether they will accept it or reject it.
We know not how God may bless all the work
that we may do, but it is not an inconceivable
thing that, as God has within the last generation
opened the way, so within the present generation
He may crown His work. When we have preached
the Gospel to every nation, there will still be
Christian work to be done, but, at any rate, it
' " Students and the Missionary Problem," 18.
157

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

seems now as if we who are now living, the young
men amongst us who are now joining this very
Union, those who are now studying the great task
to which the Lord has called them, shall, before
they die, be able to say, * The whole race of man-
kind is not yet Christian, but, nevertheless, there
is no nation upon earth where the Christian faith
is not taught if men will accept it ; there is no
place upon the whole surface of the globe where
men may not hear the message of God and the
story of the Cross if only they are willing to listen.
It is brought home to them everywhere at their
very doors, and the Church, at any rate, has
discharged the primary duty of all her duties :
she has made all nations hear the sound of the
Gospel, she has made all nations hear of the
Love of the Lord and of His great Sacrifice/ " ^

At the close of the Ecumenical Conference,
held at New York in 1900, the General Com-
mittee prepared an address to the Church. This
address was read at a meeting attended by repre-
sentatives of missionary societies of all parts of
Christendom and was adopted unanimously. It
concluded thus : *' Entrusting to Him the certain
guidance of the great tides of influence and life
which are beyond our control, it is for us to keep
' " Students and the Missionary Problem," 57.
158

OPINIONS OF CHKISTIAN LEADEKS

the commandments of His Son and carry to those
for whom He lived and died and rose again the
message of the goodness and love of their Father
and ours. We who live now and have this mes-
sage must carry it to those who live now and are
without it. It is the duty of each generation
of Christians to make Jesus Christ known to
their fellow creatures. It is our duty through
our own preachers and those forces and insti-
tutions which grow up where the Gospel pre-
vails, to attempt now the speedy evangelization
of the whole world. We believe this to be God's
present call, 'Whom shall I send and who will
go for us ? ' *We appeal to all Christian ministers
set by divine appointment as leaders of the people,
to hear this call and speak it to the Church,
and we appeal to all God's people to answer as
with one voice, ' Lord, here am I, send me.' " ^

' Quoted in The Sunday School Times^ May 19, 1900, p.
307.

109

VIII

FACTOES ESSENTIAL TO THE EVANGELIZATION
OF THE WORLD IN THIS GENERATION

Factors on the mission field.

If the world is to be evangelized in this genera-
tion more missionaries mnst be sent ont. There
are still extensive regions without a foreign worker,
notably in the interior of Africa and of China,
and in unoccupied lands like Tibet, Afghanistan
and parts of the Turkish Empire. Even in the
countries best supplied with workers there are dis-
tricts with hundreds of towns and villages in which
a missionary is seldom or never heard. Taking
the unevangelized world as a whole the present
force is absolutely inadequate.

Missionaries are needed for all forms of work.
As there is in the non-Christian world only one
medical missionary to every 1,400,000 people, it
will be seen that there is need of hundreds of this
kind of laborers. The fact that many missionary
teachers are so overburdened that they are unable
to use their opportunities to secure evangelistic
160

ESSENTIAL FACTOES

results, and that there are not a few districts in
which educational institutions need to be estab-
lished for the training of native workers to evan-
gelize their peoples, makes it clear that more men
and women must be sent out to engage in teaching.
The literary work of missions calls for large rein-
forcements from Christian lands. Thousands of
women missionaries are imperatively needed to in-
sure the evangelization of the multitudes of women
in the world. In some missions the material
equipment of educational, medical and literary
missionary work is sufficient to warrant an evan-
gelistic utilization of these aids several-fold greater
than at present. In other places the facilities for
all kinds of mission work have still to be created.
Without doubt the greatest need in all missions
and in connection with all societies is that of a
large increase of the evangelistic force.

More missionaries are needed to help reach the
nnevangelized masses. They are needed to help
solve the problems of the native Church and to
meet the crisis which confronts the Church in
nearly every land. They are indispensable to the
development of the native Church — by helping to
root and ground the native Christians in the faith,
by bringing to them the lessons of the history of
Christianity in the West, by helping to build up
161

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

a Christian literature in the native tongues, by
promoting right habits of Bible study and prayer,
by suggesting tried and approved methods of
Christian work, and by training, guiding and in-
spiring the native workers to extend the Kingdom
of Christ among their own people.

In locating the missionaries there should be due
regard to Providential openings, to the regions
totally unoccupied, to the location of missionaries
of other societies, to the distribution of the pop-
ulation, to the comparative receptivity of the sev-
eral classes of people and to other considerations
incident to the work to be done and the qualifica-
tions of the workers.

Leading authorities in all the great mission fields
have been asked to estimate how many mission-
aries, in addition to native assistants, would be
required so to lead the missionary enterprise as to
accomplish the evangelization of those countries
within a generation. The highest number sug-
gested by any one is one missionary to every
10,000 of the heathen population. Few gave a
lower estimate than one to 100,000. The average
number given is one to 50,000. The number most
frequently specified is one to 20,000. If we follow
the last proportion, it would call for an increase of
the present missionary force from 15,000 to 50,000.
162

ESSENTIAL FACTORS

The Church in Christian lands is well able to
supply the number of missionaries required to
evangelize the world. To make up the entire num-
ber called for would take but a small fraction of
the Christian students who will graduate within
this generation. It would require less than one-
fourth as many men as now constitute the Prot-
estant clergy and ministry of North America and
the British Isles. The present distribution of la-
borers is not only uneven but unfair. Dr. George
W. Northrop, in an address in which he appealed
for an enlargement of the missionary force to one
missionary for every fifty thousand heathen, says :
" We challenge any man to adduce reasons which
will approach to a justification of the course of the
Christian churches in distributing their forces
over this common missionary ground — the whole
world — in such an extraordinarily uneven way,
putting one minister in charge of 300 people, many
of whom are Christians, and another, of no greater
ability, in charge of 300,000, of whom all, or nearly
all, are pagans.^' ^

While the sudden increase of the number of
missionaries by thousands might prove unwise,
there is little danger that serious consequences
would result from a gradual enlargement of the

• The Baptist Missionary Magazine., July, 1891, p. 194.
163 '

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

foreign force. Moreover, the calculations which
have been given by different missionaries of the
number of foreign workers required for achieving
the evangelization of the world Avithin this genera-
tion have been given simply as illustrations of what
might be accomplished if the Church gave herself
to the task. Professor Warneck is right in point-
ing out that mere numbers of missionaries afford
no sure guarantee of desired results.^ At the same
time it will be conceded by all that neither can
these results be secured without a great enlarge-
ment of the number of missionaries.

The missionaries who are sent out to evangelize
the world should be men of the highest qualifica-
tions. The success of the undertaking depends
even more upon the quality of the workers than
upon their number. The Apostolic Church set
apart some of her ablest men for this work. Surely
an undertaking of such difficulty as that involved
in extending the Kingdom of Christ in all the
earth calls for the strongest and the best. Well has
Professor Legge urged that ''missionaries ought
to be the foremost men whom the Christian Church
possesses ; the men who have intermeddled most
with, and gone deepest into all knowledge ; whose

• "DiemoderneWeltevangelisations-Theorie." Allgemeine
Missions- Zeitschrift. Vol. XXIV., 320.
164

ESSENTIAL FACTORS

intellectual resources are the largest, whose prac-
tical and persuasive ability is the finest, and whose
temper is the most under their control ; the most
fervent in spirit, the largest in mind, and the most
capable in action/' ^ Generally speaking, the mis-
sionary needs a better all-round preparation than
the home pastor.

On the spirituality of the missionary more than
upon any other one factor on the mission field
depends the evangelization of the world. Far
more vital than the physical, social and intellectual
equipment of the missionary is his spiritual fur-
nishing. It is supremely and indispensably im-
portant that he be a man filled with the spirit of
Christ. This point is being emphasized to-day by
missionaries on every field. They maintain that
unless the missionary be under the sway of the
Holy Spirit he will, in the midst of deadening
heathen influences, become cold and indifferent,
his preaching will be fruitless, the example of his
own life will be powerless and he will be unable
properly to lead and to energize the native workers.
Dr. Griffith John in dwelling on the last consid-
eration says : " The quality of the native agent
will very much depend upon the quality of the

' " Proceedings of the General Conference on Foreign
Missions " (held at JMildmay, 1878), 178.

166

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

foreign missionary. An unspiritual, self-indul-
gent missionary is not likely to surround himself
with capable, spiritual, earnest, and devoted native
helpers." ^ Too much stress, therefore, cannot be
placed on having missionary candidates form the
habit of thorough and devotional Bible study be-
fore they go to the field, because a man mighty in
the Scriptures is almost sure to be mighty in Chris-
tian work. The enterprise of world-wide evangel-
ization calls also for missionaries of spiritual vision
and of victorious faith in God and in His message.
Rev. Thomas Green, Principal of the Church
Missionary College at Islington, years ago summed
up the spiritual qualifications of the missionary in
the following words : " The men we want are men of
God, truly converted in heart, and holy in life ; bap-
tized with the Holy Ghost and with fire ; taught by
the Spirit ; led by the Spirit ; filled with the Spirit ;
men of one idea, one aim, one object ; like the Great
Apostle of the Gentiles, counting all things but
loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ ;
determined not to know anything save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified ; loving Christ, living Christ,
ready and willing, if need be, to die for Christ."'

' Letter in Archives of the Student Volunteer Movement.
* " Conference on Missions " (held at Liverpool, 1860),
233, 234.

166

ESSENTIAL FACTORS

To evangelize the world in this generation it is
essential that there be a great increase in the num-
ber of well-qualified native Christian workers. As
Pastor V. Sorensen of Denmark indicates, the task
cannot be accomplished by flooding the non -Chris-
tian lands with foreign missionaries.' Thousands
of missionaries in addition to those now on the
field are needed to lead the enterprise of missions,
and especially to reach the absolutely unevangel-
ized regions ; but it may be safely estimated that
for every thousand missionaries there will be
needed ten thousand native workers. The evan-
gelization of Asia and Africa should not, therefore,
be regarded chiefly as a European or an American,
but rather as an Asiatic and an African enterprise.

There are manifest advantages in enlisting as
many suitably-qualified native Christians as possi-
ble in the work of evangelization. They are ac-
climatized and therefore able to work at all seasons.
They can live and labor in their own country at
comparatively small expense. They are able to
come into more intimate social contact with their
own people than one foreigner in a hundred can
hope to do. The natives can travel, eat, lodge,
live with the people ; the missionary has exotic

■ " Forhandlingarna vid det femte nordisk-lutberska mis*
sionsmotet," 87-93.

167

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

habits. The native workers naturally have fluent
command of the vocabulary and idioms of the lan-
guage. They have an intimate acquaintance with
the habitual trains of thought, the currents of
feeling and the springs of action. They under-
stand the native character and are the best judges
of the motives and sincerity of those among
whom they work. They know the difficulties,
temptations, doubts and prejudices of the people.
In view of such considerations as these they will
always have the most abundant and effective ac-
cess to their own countrymen.

Experience teaches that natives have been the
chief human factor in the evangelization of dif-
ferent countries. No extensive field has ever
been thoroughly evangelized but by its own sons.
This seems to be God's method. Eminent and
successful missionaries have emphasized by word
and by practice the essential character of the na-
tive arm of the service. Duff said that "when
the set time arrives, the real Reformers of Hin-
dustan, will be qualified Hindus."^ Neesima in
speaking after years of observation and experience
in Japan expressed his conviction that " the best
possible method to evangelize her people is to raise
up a native agency, and such an agency can be only
* " India, and India Missions," 331.
168

ESSENTIAL FACTORS

secured by imparting the highest Christian culture
to the best youths to be found." ^ Mackay not long
before his death said : " The agency by which,
and probably by which alone, we can Christianize
Africa, is the African himself. But he must first
be trained for that work, and trained, too, by the
European in Africa." ^ Dr. Nevius repeatedly
expressed his belief that '* the millions of China
must be brought to Christ by Chinamen." ^ Dr.
Griffith John recently wrote that "the remarkable
ingathering of the past few years in Fukien,
Hupeh, Hunan, Manchuria and other parts of
China, is to be attributed, under God, mainly to
the efficiency, earnestness and assiduity of our
native brethren." * Dr. Goodrich, in writing from
North China about the important part which
native agents must have in spreading a knowledge
of Christ, said : "Whether considered politically,
economically, sociologically, or historically, this
is the only sound policy and effective method of
evangelizing a great nation." ^

' Mr. Luther D. Wishard, " A New Programme of Mis-
sions," 30.
^ Church Missionary Intelligencer^ Sept., 1891, p. 674.

* " Records of the General Conference of the Protestant
Missionaries of China" (held at Shanghai, 1890), 171.

* Letter in Archives of the Student Volunteer Movement.
^ Ibid.

169

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

One of the most difficult problems on the mis-
sion field is that of raising np and training this
force of suitable native workers. They should be
men with clear knowledge of the traths essential
to salvation, men of true piety, men earnest and
effective in service. That it is not an easy matter
to secure them, every missionary can testify. The
unreliability, the lack of spirituality, the want of
resourcefulness and the low ideals and motives
which characterize so many native agents is a
source of much discouragement. So while there
should be due regard to obtaining large numbers
of workers and to distributing them wisely, the
main concern must be to enlist and build up
workers who will be really eflBcient. This calls
for thorough and prolonged training. Strongly
manned theological seminaries are greatly needed
on the mission field. Without doubt the greatest
work of the missionary is to make missionaries.
In no other way can he so multiply himself. Some
missionaries claim that each missionary should aim
to train a band of at least ten native workers.
What a work was achieved by the missionaries who,
under the influence of the Holy Spirit, gave the
Christian impulse to Moses Kya in the Sandwich
Islands, to Sheshadri in India, to Sau Quala, the
Karen evangelist, to Tiyo Soga among the Kafl&rs,
170

ESSENTIAL FACTORS

to Bishop Crowther in Western Africa. Merely
intellectual culture and foreign money alone can
never produce such evangelists. They are the gift
of God through the spiritual example, feeding and
training of Christ-like missionaries.^

The need of an army of competent native work-
ers emphasizes the importance of educational mis-
sionary work. No work has a more vital bearing
on the world's evangelization. It is said that the
Pasumalai College in Southern India has sent out
over 500 native Christian workers, and there are
other institutions which can show an equally en-
couraging record. Why should not every college
and school become such a center of evangelization ?
This will not be the case unless those who have the
responsibility of conducting these schools or teach-
ing in them keep the subject constantly and prom-
inently before the minds of the students.

A factor on the mission field which affords large
promise for the evangelization of the world is the
Student Young Men's Christian Association. It is
now intrenched in nearly two hundred universities,
colleges and high schools of Asia, Africa, South
America and the Pacific Islands. Not only does
the number include nearly all of the leading mis-

' Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, letter in Archives of the Student
Volunteer Movement.

171

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOKLD

sionary institutions of higher learning, but also
many of the government student centers. The
Associations of Japan, of China, of India and Cey-
lon, and of the remaining mission lands are united
into intercollegiate movements, each having its
supervisory committee composed of missionaries
and leading native Christians. Each movement
has one or more traveling and local secretaries.
These secretaries are university men who have had
experience in Christian work among students, and
they devote themselves exclusively to unifying,
guiding and energizing the societies of native
Christian students. The aim is to lay upon these
bands of Christian students the double burden of
leading their fellow-students to Christ and of evan-
gelizing their own countrymen. Thus they have
been well characterized as Student Volunteer Move-
ments for Home Missions. Through the medium
of the World's Student Christian Federation they
are kept in close and helpful touch with the
organized Christian student movements of Europe,
America, South Africa and Australasia. It woald be
difficult to overstate the importance of this union
of the Christian students of Christian and non-
Christian lands for the evangelization of the world.
There must be a great increase in voluntary
Christian work by the rank and file of the mem-
172

ESSENTIAL FACTORS

bership of the native Church, if the Gospel is to be
diffused throughout all lands in our day. The
whole Church must be trained to be missionary.
It is fatal to have the idea prevail in any native
community that the responsibility for winning
men to Christ rests on a professional class. Im-
portant as is the work of the paid agents or leaders,
it is not in itself sufficient to reach the masses. In
the days of the Apostles the Gospel spread with
wonderful rapidity because individual Christians
everywhere were filled with a passion for making
Christ known and went about living Him and
speaking of Him. So to-day in Korea, Manchuria,
Livingstonia and other mission fields, where the
work of evangelization is being pushed most exten-
sively and vigorously, one of the chief secrets of
the progress is that large numbers of the native
Christians have heard the call of Christ and are
seeking to win to Him their relatives, friends and
neighbors.

The native Church of a given district may be
regarded as the most important factor in the evan-
gelization of that district. " The evangelization
of a given district thus depends," as Dr. J. J.
Lucas of Northern India has pointed out, "largely
upon the purity, unity, prayerfulness, spiritual
knowledge, and growth of the Church of that
173

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

district. Only to such a Church will Christ give
converts, and without converts there cannot be
evangelists." ^ The great force with which to im-
press the unevangelized is a holy Church in their
midst, the members of which are living examples
of the mighty transforming and keeping power of
the Gospel.

This shows again the importance of the work of
the missionaries in raising up spiritual native
leaders, for what we make the native ministry
they will make the native Church. We recognize,
therefore, the desirability of conducting Bible
Conferences for native Christians, of creating and
circulating vernacular Christian literature, and of
seeking to lead the students and pupils of all mis-
sion colleges and schools into a vital Christian
experience and also to form right habits of prayer
and devotional Bible study before they go out to
become leaders in the churches. Above all, it
should be remembered that the feeble spiritual
life of native converts and leaders, their shallow
conception of sin, the little progress they make in
the study of the Scriptures, in observing the com-
mandments of Christ, in giving of their substance
to the spread of the Gospel and in preaching Christ
to their own people, can be remedied only by the

' Letter in Archives of the Student Volunteer Movement.
174

ESSENTIAL FACTORS

Spirit of God who works in answer to the prayers
of those that believe.

A great enlargement of work for children will
prove to be a valuable, if not a necessary, factor in i
obtaining and training a sufficient force of native
workers to evangelize the world. The plan that
seizes and impresses childhood tells mightily for
victory. At first thought this may appear to re-
quire too much time to be of real help in evangel-
izing this generation ; and yet further reflection
will convince one that there is no more direct, cer-
tain and satisfactory way of augmenting the evan-
gelizing force. The Eoman Catholic Church be-
gins with childhood in training its priests. Some
consider that one of the chief reasons why Buddh-
ism developed into numerically the largest faith in
the world is the fact that during its early history
so much attention was devoted to the children.
The minds of the young are unprejudiced and
most susceptible to Christian influence. They are
the most hopeful class, not only because they are
most impressible and docile, but also because the
future depends so largely upon them. A child
won for Christ means an adult won. Moreover,
it should not be overlooked that the child as a
child may be an evangelizing force. Often the
parents are reached best through the children,
175

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

The fact that the children are, in a sense, mission-
aries among their playmates and in their homes
lends large meaning to the mission school system
with its one million of pupils.

The promotion of the spirit and practice of com-
ity in the work of the various missionary societies
is an essential factor in accomplishing the evangel-
ization of the world. Comity should mean noth-
ing less than such a spirit of unity and practical
co-operation as would avoid misunderstandings,
friction and conflict among the workers. Such a
spirit would do much to prevent the reproduction
on the mission field of the narrow sectarianism of
the home lands. By avoiding wasteful duplication
of machinery there would be a decided saving in
number of workers, in money and in power. A
larger concentration of effort would be made pos-
sible. The Church would present a united front
to the enemy. As a result of planning and labor-
ing together in real unity there would be a greater
manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit in
all the work. The evangelizing force would be
greatly augmented ; for, in the words of Bishop
Thoburn, " if all the missionaries of the world
could to-day be made of one heart and one soul
according to the standard of the Church of Pente-
cost, the change would be equivalent to an imme-
176

ESSENTIAL FACTORS

diate reinforcement of a thousand, or perhaps I
ought to say of ten thousand, fully equipped new
workers." ^

There are many ways in which the various mis-
sions can advantageously co-operate as has been
proved by the experience of cognate denominations
in certain fields. They may unite in the conduct
of training schools, of higher educational institu-
tions, of hospitals and philanthropic enterprises,
and also in the creation, publication and distribu-
tion of literature. They may come to an agree-
ment to respect each other's rules of discipline,
principles of administration and scale of wages.
They may agree on a just territorial apportionment
and honor each other's sphere of influence. Soci-
eties in extending their operations to other regions
may go to unoccupied fields. The Bishop of La-
hore strongly emphasizes this as follows : " As long
as tens of thousands have never seen a Christian
evangelist, it is little less than crime to court diffi-
culties and heart-burnings by planting ourselves
where Christ is already preached." ^ Dr. Walter
K. Lambuth points out that "a wise regard for
this branch of missionary economics on broad
Christian lines would have long since led to a mas-

1 "The Church of Pentecost," 324.
* Letter in Archives of the Student Volunteer Movement.
177

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

terly and complete occupation of the field. "^ Has
not the time come on most of the great mission
fields for a federation of all the forces in order to
map out and occupy every district ? Judging from
the expression of missionary bodies in different
lands the time is ripe for such action. The chief
obstacles to unity and co-operation, as was pointed
out by the two Shanghai Conferences, are some of
the missionary organizations at home. The vast
extent and inherent difficulty of the work to be
done call for a clearer recognition than ever of the
oneness of Christ's followers and for the wisest
possible alignment and distribution of the forces.

If the world is to be evangelized in this genera-
tion it is necessary that the leaders on the various
fields — both missionary and native — regard this as
something not only to be desired but also to be ac-
complished. If they are sceptical as to its being
the will of God that the Church of our day shall
put forth her energies to bring a knowledge of
Christ within reach of all men in the known and
accessible world, it will not be done. On the other
hand, if ttie missionary body as a whole and the

' " Report of the Fourth Conference of Officers and Rep-
resentatives of the Foreign Mission Boards and Societies in
the United States and Canada " (held in New York, 1896),
85, 86.

17a

ESSENTIAL FACTOKS

tens of thousands of native agents have a vivid re-
alization of the necessity of reaching the entire
known and accessible world with the Gospel, they
are in a position so to distribute, lead, educate and
inspire the forces as to accomplish a marvelous diffu-
sion of the great facts about Jesus Christ. Dr.
Lucas, in writing on the evangelization of the
world in this generation, says : " This is the duty
of the Church. It should be her aim, and yet only
now and then, here and there, is this aim held up
and this duty urged. The Scriptural reasons and
motives for such a united, systematic, heroic effort
on the part of the whole Church, every Christian
taking part, are not presented and pressed with
such clearness, repetition, and emphasis as to
awaken the conscience and stir the heart of God's
people the world over. Everywhere Calebs and
Joshuas are needed to point to the infinite re-
sources back of us and to encourage God's people
to go forward. The aim is Scriptural and the duty
of making the attempt is clear, but the Calebs and
Joshuas, how few they are ! " ^

Factors on the home field.
It is indispensable to the world's evangelization
that the churches on the home field become filled

1 Letter in Archives of the Student Volunteer Movement.
179

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

with the missionary spirit. A task so vast cannot
be accomplished by the leaders of the Church at
home alone, nor by the representatives of the home
Church on the foreign field. The co-operation of
a great multitude of the members of the Church is
essential. This means that the churches in Chris-
tian lands must become missionary churches.

What characterizes a missionary church ? It is
a church whose members are intelligent concerning
the enterprise of world-wide missions, and who
recognize and accept their responsibility to help
extend Christ's Kingdom throughout the earth.
Christians will not earnestly set about the work of
evangelizing the world until they have a deep con-
viction that this is their duty and an ardent desire
to perform it. The basis of such conviction and
desire is knowledge. Among the rank and file of
the Church membership there is at present great
ignorance and consequent indifference concern-
ing missions. As a result only a comparatively
small fraction of the Church members are doing
anything in an aggressive or whole-souled way to
evangelize the world. Surely God never intended
that only a few earnest and devoted men and
women, here and there, should have a vision of
the unevangelized world and be possessed by an in-
tense longing for the salvation of the heathen.
180

ESSENTIAL FACTOKS

Far too many Christians look on the promotion
of the missionary movement as something quite
outside the ordinary Christian life. They assume
that to help extend Christ's Kingdom is an op-
tional matter and not obligatory. It must be
pressed upon them that an intelligent and active
missionary spirit is inseparable from a real Chris-
tian life ; and that a man may well question
whether he is living the Christian life — that is,
having Christ live in him — if he is indifferent to
the needs of over half the human race. The fun-
damental duty of the hour is well expressed in the
following words of the resolution adopted by the
Lambeth Conference of Bishops of the Anglican
Communion : " To arouse the Church to recog-
nize as a necessary and constant element in the
spiritual life of the Body, and of each member of
it, the fulfilment of our Lord's great commission
to evangelize all nations." ^ Christians must be
led to see that it is their duty to keep informed
concerning the Kingdom of Christ in the world —
its field, its progress, its present-day triumphs, its
problems and difficulties, its opportunities and its
resources. The Church must be led to make the
fulfilment of the command to disciple all nations
the great business of this generation of believers.

' " Conference of Bishops of the Anglican Communion," 36.
181

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

The missionary church is a self-sacrificing
church. The means given for evangelizing the
world should correspond with the magnitude of
the desired result. To mobilize and utilize the
greatly enlarged force necessary to accomplish
this purpose will require giving on a scale un-
thought of in the past. The Church, however, is
abundantly able to supply all the money needed.
If she is to respond as she should, her members
both rich and poor must come to realize their
responsibility as Christian stewards, not of one-
tenth alone, but of all that they possess, and
moreover, that they are under obligation to
make not simply good use, but the best use of the
property that they have, in the light of God's
purposes for the world. If Christians would take
the high. Scriptural ground of Livingstone, money
enough would be released to enable the Church,
so far as material resources are concerned, to
meet every opportunity. " I will place no value,"
said he, *'on anything I have or may possess,
except in relation to the Kingdom of Christ."

The awful need of a world without Christ
makes it incumbent on Christians to be more
watchful and conscientious in expenditures. Lux-
ury and materialism have become a serious menace
to the Church, and are unquestionably obscuring
182

ESSENTIAL FACTORS

its spiritual vision and hindering its evangelizing
zeal. There should be among the followers of
Christ a putting away of extravagance and super-
fluities so as to reduce the necessities of life to
a standard which will not be inconsistent with
the example and teaching of Christ and the re-
quirements of an unevangelized world.

There is need also among all classes of Chris-
tians to-day of more heroic giving and of real
self-denial on behalf of world-wide missions. Why
should more be required in this respect of the
missionary than of the member of the home
Church? *'If I as a foreign missionary," says
Bishop Thoburn, "am expected to give up all
things for the interests of the work, to count
home and treasure and ease and personal com-
fort as nothing when the interests of the work
are at stake, my brother in the United States
who unhesitatingly assigns this standard of duty
to me should be governed by a spirit precisely
similar."^ Christians should rise to a higher
plane of sacrifice than exists in the Church to-
day. They need to be reminded of the con-
ditions of discipleship which Christ imposed and
be willing to forsake all for His sake and the
Gospel's. Christian liberality stops short of the
' " The Christless Nations," 194.
183

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

highest when it leads to no self-denial. Where-
ever the Christian wins the victory over selfish-
ness and avarice and renounces the thought of
centering his affections on this world as his
home, there is developed world-conquering power.
This call to self-denial and liberality comes to
all who bear the name of Christ. To not a few
it will mean to go out to preach Christ where
He has not been named. To parents it will
mean in many cases the giving up of children
to the missionary service. To all who are unable
to become missionaries it will mean giving gener-
ously of their substance, whether their possessions
be little or great. Those who cannot go to the
front should, if at all possible, support one or
more substitutes there. Families should have
their representatives on the foreign field. Each
congregation of one hundred or more members
should have, if possible, at least two ministers —
a home pastor and another holding forth the
word of life in some nnevangelized land. If a
Church cannot support its own missionary, two
or more might unite for this purpose. This plan
of having living links between the Christian com-
munities at home and the mission fields is meeting
with increasing favor. Each congregation should
be ambitious to have some of the choicest young
184

ESSENTIAL FACTOES

men and women in its membership become mis-
sionaries. Think of the inheritance to the churches
they represented of names like Carey, Livingstone,
Judson and Martyu. Rev. Hubert Brooke in a
recent article' tells of a church of 300 communi-
cants in England which within the past decade
had thirty-two of its members volunteer for
foreign service of whom twenty have already gone
to the field and three are in training. In other
words, one in ten of the membership offered them-
selves and one in fourteen have actually gone out.

A loud call comes to the rich in this day of un-
exampled opportunity. They are in a position to
hasten greatly the extension of Christ's reign in
mission lands. Has not the missionary enterprise
reached a stage where large sums of money can be
wisely expended upon it ? The age of experiment-
ing has passed. A science of missions based on
one hundred years and more of experience is being
developed. The leading missionary societies are
conducted according to the principles and the
methods which characterize all strong organiza-
tions. It is conceded that their funds are admin-
istered economically and wisely. Ex-President
Harrison, in his opening address at the Ecumeni-
cal Missionary Conference, thus emphasized the
' Church Missionary Intelligencer^ May, 1899, p. 342.
185

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

desirability of large gifts to missions : " Univer-
sity endowments have been swelled by vast single
gifts in the United States during the last few years.
We rejoice in this. But may we not hope that in
the exposition of the greater needs of the educa-
tional work in the mission fields . . . some
men of wealth may find suggestion to endow great
schools in mission lands ? It is a great work to
increase the candle power of our educational arc
lights, but to give to cave dwellers an incandes-
cent may be a better one."^ There have been
comparatively few conspicuously great gifts de-
voted to building up the Kingdom of Christ in
less favored countries. Who can measure what
might be accomplished toward the world's evangel-
ization if some of the rich disciples of Christ would,
like Zinzendorf, devote their princely revenue and
themselves to the promotion of this God-appointed
work ? Their time and thought will be fully as
valuable and potent as their money. There is
much force in the words of Mr. John H. Converse
of the great commercial firm, the Baldwin Loco-
motive Works : " When business men apply to the
work of missions the same energy and intelligence
which govern in their commercial ventures, then

' The Missionary Review of the Worlds June, 1900, pp.
409, 410.

186

ESSENTIAL FACTORS

the proposition to evangelize the world in this gen-
eration will be no longer a dream." ^

The poor and those of moderate means, as well
as the wealthy disciples of Christ, should give of
their substance toward propagating the Gospel.
A work of such extent and urgency calls for the
participation of the entire Church of God. Spe-
cial efforts should be put forth to train in habits
of systematic, proportionate and self-denying giv-
ing the vast army of children in the Sunday
schools and of young men and young women in
the various young people's movements of the
Church. In this way a generation of intelligent
and prayerful givers may soon be raised up who
will carry forward the work in a manner commen-
surate with their opportunities. In a word, Christ
summons all, old and young, rich and poor, to
make their lives, including possessions, talents and
influence, tell on the evangelization of the world.

The missionary church is a praying church.
The history of missions is a history of prayer.
Everything vital to the success of the world's
evangelization hinges on prayer. Are thousands
of missionaries and tens of thousands of native
workers needed ? " Pray ye therefore the Lord

' In " Farewell " bulletin issued on the last day of the
Ecumenical Missionary Conference in New York, 1900.

187

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

of the harvest, that He send forth laborers into
His harvest." Is a vast increase in gifts required
to prosecute adequately the enterprise ? Prayer
is the only power that will influence God's people
to give with purity of motive and with real sacri-
fice of self. Prayer alone will overcome the gigan-
tic difficulties which confront the workers in every
field. Nothing but prayer will strengthen the
weak, tried and tempted native Christians, who
have been raised up from lives of sin and degrada-
tion, and give them the evangelistic impulse. It
is in answer to prayer that the Holy Spirit is
poured out in mighty Pentecostal power on the
workers and Christian communities in the far-off,
needy fields. Hope and confidence should not be
placed in the extent and perfection of organiza-
tions, nor in the experience which has been accu-
mulated and the agencies and methods which have
been devised in a long century of missions, nor in
the unusual strength of the missionary body, nor
in the multitude who have been gathered from
every nation and race and faith into the native
Church, nor in the wonderful resources and facil-
ities of the home Church, nor in far-sighted and
comprehensive plans, nor in enthusiastic forward
movements and inspiring watchwords. It is easy
to magnify human personality and agencies.
188

ESSENTIAL FACTOKS

Prayer recognizes that God is the source of life
and light and energy. Let methods be changed,
therefore, if necessary, that prayer may be given
its true place. Let there be days set apart for in-
tercession ; let the original purpose of the monthly
concert of prayer for missions be given a larger
place ; let missionary prayer cycles be used by
families and by individual Christians ; let the best
literature on prayer be circulated among the mem-
bers of the Church ; let special sermons on the
subject of intercession be preached. By these and
by all other practical means a larger, deeper, wider
spirit of prayer should be cultivated in the churches.
The Church has not yet touched the fringe of the
possibilities of intercessory prayer. Her largest vic-
tories will be witnessed when individual Christians
everywhere come to recognize their priesthood unto
God and day by day give themselves unto prayer.
If added power attends the united prayer of two
or three, what mighty triumphs there will be when
hundreds of thousands of consistent members of
the Church are with one accord day by day mak-
ing intercession for the extension of Christ's
Kingdom.

Mr. Robert E. Speer, in his pamphlet, " Prayer
and Missions," which has done so much to awaken
the Church to prayer, goes to the heart of the sub-
189

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

ject : " The evangelization of the world in this gen-
eration depends first of all upon a revival of prayer.
Deeper than the need for men ; deeper, far, than
the need for money ; aye, deep down at the bottom
of onr spiritless life is the need for the forgotten
secret of prevailing, world-wide prayer. . . .
The condition and consequence of such prayers as
this is a new outpouring of the Holy Ghost. Noth-
ing short of His own suggestion will prompt the
necessary prayer to bring Him back again in power.
Nothing short of His new outpouring will ever
solve the missionary problems of our day." ^

It is essential that the leaders of the Church in
the home lands as well as on the mission field re-
gard the evangelization of the world as a primary
obligation and devote themselves to its accomplish-
ment. The present attitude of the Church and
the plans of her leaders are certainly not consist-
ent with a deep conviction that in our day all men
should be given an opportunity to know Jesus
Christ. The great duty of the Church to disciple
all nations should be recognized as the supreme
question of the time. For over a century there
has been pioneer work. The letter sent out to
pastors in 1897 by the representatives of the mis-
sion boards of the United States and Canada

' Pp. 22, 23.
190

ESSENTIAL FACTOES

rightly insists that " now the time has come for
the Church of God to arise and gird itself for the
conquest of the nations for Christ. Let us count
this Divinely-given task as no longer a side issue,
but as the chief object for which the Church
exists."^ Who can doubt for a moment that if
the leaders of the Church at home really desired
to have the world evangelized in this generation
and set themselves to bring the hosts of God up to
the task, it would be accomplished ?

An enterprise which aims at the evangelization
of the whole world in a generation, and contem-
plates the ultimate establishment of the Kingdom
of Christ, requires that its leaders be Christian
statesmen — men with far-seeing views, with com-
prehensive plans, with power of initiative and with
victorious faith.

While the call to evangelize was addressed to
the whole Church a special responsibility rests
upon the home pastor because he has been divinely
appointed to lead the forces. He holds a key posi-
tion. If he lacks the missionary spirit ; if he is
not fully persuaded that the cause of missions is
the cause of Christ Himself, his church will not be

' " Report of the Sixth Conference of the OfBcers and Rep-
resentatives of the Foreign Mission Boards and Societies in
the United States and Canada " (held in New York, 1898), 91.
191

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

missionary. As the pastor so the people, is geuer-
ally true in relation to this subject. It would be
difficult if not impossible to find a case of a pastor
deeply and actively interested in missions who has
not met with a real response from a goodly num-
ber of his parishioners. " Let the pulpit give its
proper place to the subject that was the vision of
prophets, the song of sacred poets, the consolation
of the Kedeemer, the labor of apostles, the in-
gathering of the Gentiles ; and missions would
have a new standing in the Church, a fresh devel-
opment in the world." ^ Where the pastor gives
much missionary information to his people and
systematically presses the claims of the world upon
them, the people become missionary. His respon-
sibility acquires added significance when it is
remembered that the Church on the mission field
will be a reflection of the Church in Christian
lands. Its life will not reach and remain at a
higher level than the life of the home congrega-
tions.

There are striking examples in all Christian
countries showing what one pastor can accomplish
who devotes himself with conviction and enthusi-
asm to the cause of the world^s evangelization.

' Eev. James Lewis, in " Conference on Missions " (held
at Liverpool, 1860), 157.

192

ESSENTIAL FACTORS

The methods which such pastors have employed
are reproducible by any pastor. The missionary
pastor has abandoned the merely occasional mis-,
sionary sermon, and makes missions the fibre and
substance of his teaching. Much personal effort
is put forth in his parish. The missionary work
is thoroughly organized. Scriptural habits of
giving are cultivated. The people are taught to
offer continual prayer for the extension of the
Kingdom of Christ. The awakening and main-
taining of the spirit of prayer is recognized as the
first duty. Missions have a prominent place in
the pastor's public prayers and this exerts a power-
ful indirect influence. Moreover, he gives himself
much to prayer on behalf of the world. Here lies
the secret of his enthusiasm and influence. It
takes spiritual energy to stir up spiritual energy.
Only fire kindles fire.

If we are to have more missionary pastors the
subject of missions must receive larger attention
in the theological seminaries. Chairs of missions
should be established and filled only by men pos-
sessing both scientific attainments and a passion
for the world's evangelization. Students should
be required to make an exhaustive study of the
moral and religious condition of the unevangelized
world, of the ground and history of missions, of
193

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

the lives of great missionaries and of the methods
of enlisting the fullest co-operation of the churches
in the work of missions. Pastors should be taught
to look on their churches, not only as a field to be
cultivated, but also as a force to be wielded on
behalf of the world's evangelization. No student
should be counted worthy to assume the duties of
the ministry who has not acquired a world-wide
horizon and who has not caught the real mission-
ary spirit, that is, the spirit of Christ.

The Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign
Missions has been raised up for such a time as this.
It is indispensable as a factor in the world's evan-
gelization. It occupies a position of strategic
importance, having assumed so largely the respon-
sibility of cultivating for missions the student
centers of Christendom. Already its organized
work has extended to the universities, colleges and
other institutions of higher learning in the United
States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Norway,
Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Holland, Switzerland,
the Protestant communities of France, Australia,
New Zealand and South Africa. Such a union of
the students of all Protestant Christendom, not to
mention those of the unevangelized lands, must be
regarded as both a preparation for and a promise
of a greater work by the Church in the world.
194

ESSENTIAL FACTORS

The Movement has only begun to realize its
possibilities. Its plans mnst be made far more
extensive and its work must be prosecuted with
much greater energy in all these countries, if it is
to do what the Church has a right to expect of it
toward accomplishing the world-wide proclamation
of the Gospel. It should see to it that no Chris-
tian student goes out into the world without having
been brought face to face with the question of his
responsibility to carry out the final commission of
his Lord. All students who are to become leaders
in the Church at home and abroad should be en-
listed and guided in the scientific study of mis-
sions. Men and women of high qualifications
should be enrolled by the thousands as volunteers
for foreign missions, and all practical measures
should be employed to insure their receiving the
most thorough preparation. Only by carrying out
such a comprehensive and aggressive policy will the
missionary societies be supplied with a sufficient
number of thoroughly qualified candidates to
evangelize the world in this generation.

195

IX

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD IN THIS
GENERATION AS A WATCHWORD

The idea of evangelizing the world in a genera-
tion did not originate, as some have thought, with
student volunteers for foreign missions. In sub-
stance, and often in practically the same phrase-
ology, it has been urged in different generations
by leaders of the Church both in Christian coun-
tries and on the mission fields. The Student Vol-
unteer Movement, however, was the first body of
Christians to adopt it as a watchword and to pro-
mote in an organized way its acceptance by all dis-
ciples of Christ.

In 1886-87, before the Volunteer Movement was
regularly organized, Mr. Robert P. Wilder and
Mr, John N. Forman, who served as its first trav-
eling secretaries, went about the universities and
colleges of the United States and Canada pressing
upon students the possibility and duty of evangel-
izing the world in a generation as one of the
motives for volunteering for missionary service.
196

AS A WATCHWORD

In 1887 all the volunteers who assembled at
Northfield, representing many American and
Canadian nniversities, issued an appeal to the
churches, in which among other reasons why
they had volunteered they mentioned the possi-
bility of evangelizing the world in the present
generation. When the Student Volunteer Move-
ment for Foreign Missions was formally organized
in 1888, one of the first acts of its Executive
Committee was the adoption of the phrase, " The
Evangelization of the World in this Generation,"
as the Watchword of the Movement. From that
time to the present the leaders of this Movement
in North America have earnestly advocated the
idea.

The leaders of the Student Volunteer Missionary
Union of Great Britain, at the time of their Liver-
pool Conference in 1896, having for months given
the subject most thorough consideration, adopted
the same watchword. About a year later they pre-
pared a memorial "to the Church of Christ in
Britain " in which they appealed not only to Chris-
tians in general to take part in the evangelization
of the world in this generation, but also to those
" who are called to the holy office of guiding the
counsels and action of the Church, to recognize
[the] Watchword as expressive of the present duty
197

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

of the Church, and to accept it as Itheir] mission-
ary/ policy."^

The leaders of the Volunteer Movement in
America and Britain in adopting the Watchword
did not understand that in doing so they were
making it binding on each volunteer. This they
knew tliey had no authority to do. They did ac-
cept it, however, for themselves ; and adopted it
for the Movement in the sense of making it a great
aim of the Movement, toward the realization of
which they as leaders would seek to guide its
forces. To this end they have, from the time of
its adoption, had as a prominent part of their
policy the leading of volunteers and all other
Christians to take it as a personal watchword. As
a result, not only many student volunteers, but a
great number of other Christians have accepted the
evangelization of the world in this generation as a
controlling principle in their lives. In a word,
then, it was made the watchword of a movement in
order that it might more widely and more effec-
tively be made the watchword of individual lives.

In actual use the Watchword has proved to be
remarkably effective. This is due to the fact that
it is at once concise, comprehensive, definite, in-

' The Student Volunteer (of Great Britain), New Series,
No. 15, pp. 77-79.

198

AS A WATCHWORD

strnctive, Scriptural, striking and inspiring. Ob-
jection has been made to its wording on the ground
that it needs explanation, but this might be said
of almost every watchword which has influenced
large numbers of men. Any great duty ever urged
upon the Church has required and has received ex-
planation and defence. That this is not without its
advantages is suggested by the following words of
the Bishop of Newcastle in his address at the Lon-
don Student Conference. " For myself," he said,
<'I think that it [the Watchword] did require,
and that it has received, an adequate explanation.
. . . It seems to me that you are perfectly jus-
tified in having a Watchword which challenges
thought. If you had a Watchword which simply
repeated a verse of Holy Scripture, I am afraid,
that just as many familiar phrases are read and not
realized, in like manner this Watchword might be
passed over and not realized, too." ^

The Student Volunteer Movement has derived
many advantages from the use of the WatchAvord.
It has helped to concentrate the convictions, de-
sires and purposes of a great number of Christians
on the work of the world's evangelization. It has
exerted a unifying influence among the volunteers.
This means much in a movement which has be-
» " Students and the Missionary Problem," 200.
199

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

come well nigh world-wide. As a rallying cry it
has been of great value, affording a strong ground
of appeal to men to become volunteers. It has
attracted the attention of the Church, lifted its
faith and moved it to greater sacrifice and prayer-
fulness. It has kept before the volunteers as well
as other Christians the universality and urgency
of their purpose. " It has imparted a steadiness of
purpose, a unity of aim and a ringing note of hope-
fulness to the whole Union." ^

The Watchword has exerted a most helpful
influence in the lives of individual Christians.
By emphasizing Christ's command, it furnishes a
powerful motive. By urging the responsibility
comprised in a life time of service, it lends greater
intensity to one's missionary zeal and activity. It
prevents unnecessary delay. It leads to the study
of what is involved in the evangelization of the
world in a generation. It calls out enterprise,
self-sacrifice and heroism, and stimulates hopeful-
ness and faith. It brings to the individual the
inspiration which results from union with many
others having the same ideal and purpose.

Many testimonies regarding the value of the
Watchword to the life of the Christian might be

' Report of the Executive of the Student Volunteer Mission-
ary Union in '' Students and the Missionary Problem," 130.
200

AS A WATCHWOKD

given. A prominent Christian worker says : " In
my life the Watchword has become a passion and a
controlling force. It has kept me from confining
my prayers and efforts to any one country. It
has prevented me from magnifying a corner of the
world-field out of its proper proportion. It has
given me a truer perspective in service, a bolder
faith in God, and a broader love for all evangelical
Christian denominations ; since the co-operation
of all is necessary for the realization of the Watch-
word. Moreover, it has increased my love for the
Lord who not only suffered and rose again from
the dead, but also made it possible that repentance
and remission of sins should be preached in His
name by the Christians of each generation to the
unevangelized of their generation."

An Oxford man writes : " The Watchword has,
I think, been the strongest call to consecration that
has ever come to me. It does not of course set be-
fore us any standard or make upon us any demands
which are not to be found in the love and com-
mands of Jesus Christ. But it presents the ideal
in such a definite and practical form as constantly
to recall us from dreamily supposing that we are
what we might be or are doing what we might
do. We cannot reflect upon it without being
startled from our apathy."
2G1

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

A recent graduate of Harvard, engaged in teach-
ing, gives the following testimony : " The Watch-
word has helped me to understand my own duty
and that of the Church. In many ways it is like
the divine command, ' Be ye perfect.' Once hav-
ing heard its uncompromising imperative one can
never be satisfied with a narrower view of the
world, or of the work set for earnest men to do. It
is not narrow or exclusive. Rather it gathers into
a sentence the duty of all the ages, bids us remem-
ber the uttermost as well as the nearest parts of
the earth, and gives renewed zeal in view of the
urgent need and opportunity which it portrays."

A worker among the young women of India,
says : "At home the motto was to me a call to
arms and the rallying cry of the 'faithful.' Since
coming to the mission field, it has been to me that
and much more. Face to face as never before
with the powers of darkness, the motto has been a
light shining in a dark place, forbidding despair
and pointing to the glory which shall be revealed.
For I believe with a deep faith that our motto is
God-given and is but its own realization 'cast-
ing its shadow before.'"

A Yale man now in Christian work among
students writes as to the influence of the Watch-
word on his life : "It breaks down denomina-
202

AS A WATCHWORD

tional and national barriers and makes me feel a
part of a great and united army of young mission-
aries who are working for a common end under a
common Master. It is a spur to attempt great
things for God. It lifts one out of a lack of ex-
pectation, arising from looking merely at things
seen, to behold and lay hold of the reality of the
nnseen plan and power of God."

A Vanderbilt alumnus gives this expression as
to the value of the "Watchword : "I wish to bear
emphatic testimony to the influence of the Watch-
word of the Student Volunteer Movement upon
my own life. It was not possible for me to get to
the foreign field within over fourteen years after
my decision to go. During these long years of
waiting there was no end of forces to weaken one's
conviction of duty to the unevangelized world.
This conviction the Watchword, on the other
hand, intensified and did much to make a perma-
nent and the controlling influence in my life.
But the Watchword has never meant so much to
me as since my arrival on the foreign field. The
splendid vision of the Watchword is a needed in-
spiration in the face of the awful discouragements
of mission work among the heathen and the call to
urgency is a much needed spur to natural lethargy
and conservatism."

203

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

An Edinburgh medical graduate affirms : " The
Watchword has carried into my prayer life a
thought of urgency which was not often in my
mind so concretely before. ... It has supplied
a concrete aim which has been operative in my
thought when considering expenditure upon my-
self. It has served as a valuable point of appeal to
others — arousing attention, stimulating investiga-
tion, stirring prayer and sacrifice. It has united
me to many — known and unknown — holding
the same ideal, and has thus brought me all the
inspiration peculiar to a unity of purpose with
many others. It has supplied a principle which
has been a test of a very definite kind to my pur-
pose, practices and aims."

It is hoped that missionary societies and other
Christian organizations may accept the Watchword,
not only as expressive of the duty of the Christians
of the present generation, but also as one of their
points of missionary policy. In the last analysis,
however, the Watchword must be made the watch-
word of individual Christians, if it is to be realized.
The Watchword must be regarded and treated by
each Christian as though he were the only one to
whom it had come. It belongs to each one to give
himself to the evangelization of the world in his
day with such energy and faith that, if a sufficient
2U4

AS A WATCHWORD

number of Christians conld be inclnced to do like-
wise, the task would be achieved. No one should
wait for the whole Church, or, indeed for any
others, to realize their obligation and attempt to
discharge it ; but if he feels the pressure of the
facts and recognizes the hand of God in this
enterprise, he should throw himself into its ac-
complishment. Responsibility is individual, non-
transferable, urgent. However much one may
hide behind the attitude and practice of the gen-
eral body of Christians, either of his own or of
other generations, at the judgment seat of Jesus
Christ he must stand and be judged by what he
himself did to serve his own generation.

It should be reiterated that responsibility for
the world's evangelization rests alike upon all
Christians, and not merely upon students or any
other special class or order. Its promotion is no
more the duty and privilege of those who go to the
mission field and of those who administer the work
at home than it is of other Christians.

Each Christian should be on his guard lest he
be deflected or hindered from discharging his re-
sponsibility to the unevangelized. The number of
heathen, the serious combination of diflQculties on
the mission field, the lethargy and indifference of
so many Christians, the lack of active interest
205

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

among one's own associates, shonld not be allowed
to keep any Christian from saying, " I am debtor
both to Greeks and to Barbarians/' and, therefore,
"as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the
gospel."^

What is involved in taking as one's personal
watchword the evangelization of the world in this
generation ? Far more than mere intellectual
assent to the idea and nominal acceptance of it.
More even than earnest belief in it and strong de-
sire to see it realized. Knowledge, emotion and
resolution are not substitutes for action. It is very
dangerous for a man to become intellectually con-
verted to a great idea and not practically. Noth-
ing less is meant than making the Watchword a
commanding influence in each man's life.

There are several particulars in which the
Watchword should govern the Christian. In
deciding upon his life work the Christian must
let the Watchword have its true place, and not be
afraid to settle the question in the light of the
opportunity and obligation to make Christ known
to all men. He should be ambitious to enter
that particular work and field in which his life
will count most for the world's evangelization.
This decision, made conscientiously and fearlessly,
' Rom. i. 14, 15.
206

AS A WATCHWORD

will result in not a few going out to unevangelized
lands as ambassadors for Christ. Others will be
led to work in Christian countries as ministers and
laymen, but for the same purpose — to give all
mankind the opportunity to know Christ. The
vital matter is that a man be willing and anxious
to work where God wants him to work. If he is
not willing to serve Christ everywhere he cannot
serve Him rightly anywhere. The Watchword
should influence also a man's preparation for his
life work. The fact that the undertaking is dif-
ficult as well as extensive and urgent demands
thorough preparation on the part of all who would
do most to accomplish it.

The Christian who has taken the Watchword
as a factor in his life will make a study of the
great subject of world-wide missions. By regular
and careful reading of missionary literature and
in other ways he will seek to understand all that
is involved in the realization of the Watchword,
and to ascertain how he can do most to promote
its realization.

The religion of Christ should be a great reality
in the life of every man who adopts such a watch-
word. How inconsistent and unreal it would
be to urge preaching Christ as the sufficient
Saviour and rightful Lord of all men and yet
207

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

not know Him in personal experience day by
day as a triumphant Saviour and as the actual
Master of one's life. There is no more direct
or effectual way to hasten the evangelization of
the world than to give Christ the absolute right
of way in one's own life and to be filled and
energized by His Spirit.

The Watchword summons the man who would
come under its sway to a life of self-sacrifice. He
mast give up personal ease. His time must be
economized for study, prayer and work on behalf
of missions. By real self-denial, as well as by
thrift and faithful stewardship, he will make his
money exert the maximum of influence on the
extension of the Kingdom of Christ.

Every one who feels pressed in spirit by this
Watchword must also realize that he is called
to a life of prayer. Like Eliot and Brainerd
and Martyn and Pastor Harms he must know
what it is to devote long hours to prayer. A
missionary movement which would evangelize the
world in this generation must acquire great mo-
mentum; and this can result only from more
Christians giving themselves to the ministry of
intercession.

The Christian who adopts this Watchword
must devote himself with intensity and enthusi-
208

AS A WATCHWORD

asm to its realization. He must not be satisfied
with the little which he is now doing but only
in doing all that he can. Let him be profoundly
in earnest or else take some other watchword.
Every mighty achievement in the history of the
Church has been a triumph of men of genuine
enthusiasm. Real Christian enthusiasm is not a
product of the energy of the flesh, but of the
Spirit of the living God. Such enthusiasm is
constant, undiscourageable, contagious and irre-
sistible.

If this Watchword has come to be a power
and inspiration in one's life, it is one's duty to
press it upon others. One of the best ways to
insure its realization is to carry on a constant
propaganda among Christians for the express
purpose of influencing them to let it become a
governing factor in their lives. If the Church
is to be deeply moved by this idea, many, both
ministers and laymen, by public addresses, by
articles in the press and by conversation in the
circles in which they move from day to day,
must give themselves to its advocacy. From
among them surely God will raise up some
whom He will use mightily in rousing the Church
to go forth to evangelize the world. It is im-
possible to measure what might be done by a
209

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

few men who, catching a vision of the world
evangelized, yield themselves wholly to God to
be used by Him to realize the vision. Was it
not one man, Peter the Hermit, who stirred all
Christendom to unexampled sacrifice of property
and life to rescue the Holy City from the Mos-
lems ? Did not God use Carey alone to awaken
a sleeping Church and usher in the marvelous
modern missionary era ? Was it not Clarkson
who was instrumental in quickening the con-
science of a whole nation to abolish the slave-
trade? Was it not Howard who, also single-
handed and alone, laid bare before the eyes of
the world the sad state and suffering of the
prisoners of different lands and brought about
reforms for the amelioration of their condition ?
So to-day, let not one, or a few, but many of
those in all lands and among all races who ac-
knowledge Christ as King arise and resolve, at
whatever cost, to devote their lives to leading
forward the hosts of God to fill the whole world
with a knowledge of Christ in this generation.

210

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THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

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Africa's Evangelization.
London: 1897.

Tucker, H. W. Memoir of the Life and Episcopate of
George Augustus Selwyn, D.D. Bishop of New Zea-
land, 1841-1869; Bishop of Lichfield, 1867-1878. 2
vols. Vol. II.
London : n. d.

Uhlhorn, Gerhard. The Conflict of Christianity with
Heathenism. Edited and translated with the author's
sanction from the third German edition by Egbert C.
Smyth and C. J. H Ropes. Revised edition.
New York: 1894.

Union Golden Text Book.
Philadelphia: 1900.

[This pamphlet contains the oflScial statistics of the
American Sunday-School Union].

UssiNG, Henry. Evangeliets Forkyndelse for hele Verden
i vor egen Tid. Et foredrag om den nyere engelsk-
amerikanske Missionsopfattelse.
Kjobenhavn: 1897.

232

BIBLIOGEAPHY

Van Lennep, A. O. and Schaufpler, A. F. The Growth
of Christianity During Nineteen Centuries, Exhibited in
a Series of Charts and Numerical Tables.
New York : n. d. (c. 1884).

Verhandlungen der neunten kontinentalen Missionskon-
ferenz zu Bremen am 25., 2G. u. 28. Mai 1897.
Berlin: 1897.

Waghorn, Thomas. The Acceleration of Mails (once a
fortnight) between England and the East Indies and
Vice Versa.
London: 1843.

Warneck, G. Abriss einer Geschichte der protestantischen
Missionen von der Reformation bis auf die Gegenwart.
1. Abt. : Das heimatliche Missionsleben. 3. ganzlich
um gearbeitete Auflage.
Berlin: 1898.

Warneck, G. Evangelische Missionslehre. Ein missions-
theoretischer Versuch. 3 bds.
Gotha: 1897.

Warneck, G. Modern Missions and Culture, Their Mutual
Relations. Translated from the German by Thomas
Smith. New edition.
Edinburgh: n. d. [1882].

Warneck, G. Outline of the History of Protestant Missions
from the Reformation to the Present Time : A Contribu-
tion to Recent Church-History. Translated from the
second edition, by Thomas Smith.
Edinburgh: 1884.

Watt, J. Gordon. Four Hundred Tongues.
London: 1899.

Whatelt, Richard. Sermons on Various Subjects. Sec-
ond edition.
London: 1849.

233

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

Whitaker, Joseph. An Almanack for the Year of Our
Lord 1900.
London: 1900,

WisHARD, Luther D. A New Programme of Missions : A
Movement to Make the Colleges in all Lands Centers of
Evangelization.
New York, Chicago, Toronto : 1895.

WiSHARD, Luther D. The Students' Challenge to the
Churches. A Plea for a Forward Movement in World
Evangelization. Revised edition.
Chicago, New York, Toronto : 1900.

Woods, Leonard. A Sermon Delivered at the Tabernacle
in Salem, Feb. 6, 1812, on Occasion of the Ordination
of the Rev. Messrs. Samuel Newell, A.M., Adoniram
Judson, A.M., Samuel Nott, A.M., Gordon Hall, A.M.
and Luther Rice, A.B. , Missionaries to the Heathen in
Asia. Under the Direction of the Board of Commis"
eioners for Foreign Missions.
Boston: 1812.

234

ANALYTICAL INDEX

CHAPTER I

DEFINITION, OR, WHAT IS MEANT BY THE EVANGELIZATION
OF THE WORLD IN THIS GENERATION

I. Introductory statement regarding the growing belief in
the idea — the evangelization of the world in this gen-
eration, 1, 2.

II. Its meaning — stated positively, 3-7.

1. General definition, 3.

2. The idea is involved in the missionary commission of

Christ, 3, i.

3. The Gospel which is to be preached, 4.

4. By what means and in what manner the Gospel is to

be made known, 4-6.

5. When the world should be evangelized, 6, 7.

III. Its meaning — stated negatively, 7-16.

1. It does not mean the conversion of the world in this

generation, 7.

2. Does not imply the superficial preaching of the

Gospel, 8.

3. Does not signify the Christianization of the world, 9.

4. Does not involve the support of any special theory

of eschatology, 9.

5. Is not to be regarded as a prophecy, 9, 10.

6. Does not minimize but rather emphasizes the impor-

tance of the regular methods of missionary work,
10-15.

(1) General statement of vital interdependence of

the chief methods of missionary work, 10, 11.

(2) Relation of educational missionary work to the

evangelization of the world, 11-13.
235

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOELD

(3) Relation of literary missionary work to the evan-

gelization of the world, 13.

(4) Relation of medical missionary work to the

erangelization of the world, 13, 14.

(5) Pre-eminence of direct evangelistic work, 14, 15.
7. Is not to be regarded as an end in itself, 15, 16.

CHAPTER II

THE OBLIGATION TO EVANGELIZE THE WORLD

I. It is the duty of the Church to evangelize the world
because all men need the Gospel, 17-19.

1. General statement about the spiritual need of the

world, 17.

2. Non-Christian religions are inadequate, 18.

3. The Scriptures teach that men need Christ, 18, 19.

4. If men in Christian lands need Christ, men in non-

Christian lands likewise need Him, 19.

II. Because those who have the Gospel owe it to all men,
19-24.

1. Christians are trustees of the Gospel, 19, 20.

2. If Christians do not preach Christ where He is not

known, no one else will, 20, 21.

3. The teachings and example of Christ impel His fol-

lowers to evangelize the world, 21.

4. The last command of Christ is the chief ground of

obligation, 22-24.

(1) This command intended for all Christians and

for the Christians of all ages, 22, 23.

(2) Advantages of Christ's command as a motive

power, 23, 24.
IIL Because to evangelize the world is essential to the best
life of the Christian Church, 24-26.

1. Effect of the sin of disobedience, 24, 25.

2. Reflex influence of missionary work on the home

Church, 25, 26.

236

ANALYTICAL INDEX

IV. The urgency of the obligation to evangelize the world,
26-29.

1. The Christians of this generation must make Christ

known to the uneyangelized of this generation,
26, 27.

2. The present generation is one of unexampled crisis,

27.

3. This generation is one of unusual opportunity, 27, 28.

4. The forces of evil are not deferring their work, 28.

CHAPTER III

DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF EVANGELIZING THE WORLD

I. Difficulties on the mission field, 30-42.
1. External to the Church, 30-38.

(1) Difficulties incident to the number and distri-

bution of the unevangelized population of the
world, 30, 31.

(2) Political, 31, 32.

(3) Social, 32-34.

(a) Bad example set by godless foreigners, 32, 33.

(b) Race pride and prejudice, 33.

(c) Low position of woman, 33.

(d) Tyranny of custom, 33, 34.

(e) Caste, 34.

(4) Intellectual, 34, 35.

(5) Linguistic, 35, 36.

(6) Religious and moral, 36-38.

(a) Extent and antiquity of the non-Christian

religions, 36.

(b) Opposing power of non-Christian religions,

36.

(c) Lack of confidence in all religions on the

part of many, 36, 37.

(d) Want of sense of sin, 37.

(e) The fact of sin, 38.

237

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WOKLD

2. Within the Church, 38-42.

(1) Of the native Christians, 38-40.

(a) Their poverty, 38.

(b) Low state of spiritual life, 38, 39.

(c) Lack of independence and aggressiveness, 39.

(d) Need of more leaders, 39, 40.

(2) Of the missionaries, 40-42.

(a) Physical diflSculties, 40.

(b) Social, 40.

(c) Linguistic, 40-42.

(d) Spiritual, 42.

II. DiflSculties within the Church on the home field, 42-44.

1. Misconceptions and scepticism among Christiana as

to the necessity and obligation to evangelize the
world, 42, 43.

2. Want of unity among Christians, 43, 44.

3. Increasing wordliness in the Church, 44.

4. Need of missionary pastors, 44.

III. Some considerations suggested by the diflSculties, 45-50.

1. All the diflSculties given do not apply to any one

field, 45.

2. They cannot be ignored, 45.

3. None of them are insuperable. Illustrations showing

how great diflSculties have been removed, 45-49.

4. The greatest hindrances are within the Church, 49.
6. Tendency to magnify the diflSculties, 49, 60.

6. DiflSculties are not without their advantages, 50.

CHAPTER IV

THE POSSIBILITY OF EVANGELIZING THE WORLD IN THIS
GENERATION IN VIEW^ OF THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE
FIRST GENERATION OF CHRISTIANS

I. Introductory statement regarding the evangelistic zeal
of the first generation of Christians, length of the
first Christian generation, and principal sources of
information concerning the early Christians, 51, 52.

238

ANALYTICAL INDEX

II. Field in which the early Christians worked, 52, 53.

1. Extent, 52.

2. Social, moral and religious condition, 52, 53.

III. Circumstances which favored the wide and rapid proc-

lamation of the Gospel in the first Christian genera-
tion, 53-55.

IV. Evangelistic achievements of the Christians of the

Apostolic Age, 55-65.

1. Great extent of territory touched by them, 55-58.

2. Numerical results of their preaching, 58-61.

3. Various classes of society influenced by them, 61-63.

4. The persecutions of Christians in the first century

bear testimony to the rapid spread of Christianity
in the first generation, 63, 64.

5. Facts about the Christians of the second century

which indicate the great evangelistic activity of tha
early Christians, 64, 65.

V. Difficulties encountered by the Christians of the first
generation, 65-67.

VI. Secret of the evangelistic achievements of the early
Christians, 67-75.

1. The leaders of the Church aimed to get the Gos-

pel preached as widely as possible in their day,
67, 68.

2. All classes of Christians recognized their responsi-

bility to extend Christ's Kingdom, 68, 69.

3. The early Christians preached the Gospel at all op-

portunities, 69, 70.

4. They kept pressing into the unevangelized regions,

70.

5. The leaders centered their energies on the great

cities, 70-72.

6. Results of evangelistic work were conserved, 72, 73.

7. The Apostolic Church committed the work of ex-

tending Christ's Kingdom to men of strong quali-
fications, 73, 74,

239

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

8. Prayer had a prominent place in the early Church,

74.

9. The Spirit of God guided and empowered the

workers, 74, 75.

VII. Significance of the achievements of the Christians of
the first generation to the Christians of to-day, 75-78.

1. Should stimulate faith and afford guidance, 75.

2. When the favoring circumstances of the two periods

are considered the balance of advantage seems to
be with the present generation, 75-77.

3. Achievements of the early Christians due chiefly to

their equipment and their conception of the work,
and in these and other essential respects the
Christians of to-day may be like them, 77, 78.

CHAPTER V

THE POSSIBILITV OF EVANGELIZING THE WORLD IN THIS
GENERATION IN VIEW OF SOME MODERN MISSIONARY
ACHIEVEMENTS

I. General account of the work in Manchuria of the Irish
Presbyterians and the United Presbyterians of Scot-
land, 79-85,

1. Field, 79, 80.

2. Beginning of missionary work and growth of the

force, 80.

3. Difficulties encountered, 80, 81.

4. Evangelistic achievements, 81-83.

5. Means employed, 83-85.

II. General account of the Uganda Mission of the Church
Missionary Society, 85-93.

1. Field, 86.

2. Origin of the mission, 86.

3. Obstacles and opposition met, 86-88.

4. Evangelistic achievements, 88-90.

6. Secret of success, 90-93.

240

ANALYTICAL INDEX

III. Some examples of educational missionary work, 93-90.

1. Presbyterian College at Teng-chou Fu, China, 93, 94.

2. Work of Miss Agnew in the Girls' Boarding School

of the American Board at Oodooville, Ceylon, 94,
95.

3. Reference to other striking examples, 95, 96.

IV. The Moravian Church as an object lesson in the de-
velopment of the missionary life of the home
Church, 96-98.

V. Outline statement of other striking examples of evan-
gelistic achievement in connection with different
forms of missionary work, 98-102.

VI. General inference drawn from the foregoing facts, 102,
103.

CHAPTER VI

THE POSSIBILITY OF EVANGELIZING THE WORLD IN
THIS GENERATION IN VIEW OF THE OPPORTUNITIES,
FACILITIES AND RESOURCES OP THE CHURCH

I. Introductory statement, 104, 105.

II. Opportunities of the Church, 105-107.

1. The whole world is practically open to the Church,

105, 106.

2. The heathen are capable of understanding the Gospel,

106, 107.

III. Facilities at the disposal of the Church, 107-116.
1. Geographical societies, 107, 108.
2 Knowledge of all races, 108, 109.

3. Improved means of communication, 109-113.

(1) Railways, 109, 110.

(2) Steamship service, 110, 111.

(3) Cable and telegraph systems, 111, 112.

(4) News agencies, 112.

(5) Universal Postal Union, 112.

241

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

4. Printing press, 113-115.

5. Christian governments, 115.

6. Medical knowledge and skill, 115, 116.

7. Methods and results of science and of other branches

of Western learning, 116.

IV. Resources of the Church, 116-130.

1. Membership, 116, 117.

2. Money power, 117-120.

3. Missionary societies and their agents, 120, 121.

4. Bible societies and their work, 122-124,

5. Religious press, 124.

6. Christian colleges, 124.

7. Christian student movements, 124-127.

8. Christian movements among young people, 127.

9. Sunday schools, 128.

10. Native Church, 128, 129.

(1) Number and character of members, 128.

(2) Number of workers, 128, 129.

(3) Number of pupils and students in schools and

colleges, 129.

(4) The student movement, 129.

11. Divine resources, 129, 130.

V. Significance of these opportunities, facilities and re-
sources, 130, 131.

CHAPTER VII

THK POSSIBILITY OP EVANGELIZING THE WORLD WITHIN
A GENERATION AS VIEWED BY LEADERS IN THE
CHURCH

This chapter is composed of quotations bearing on the sub-
ject taken from published or written statements of mission-
aries, bishops, ministers, presidents and professors of col-
leges, editors, secretaries of missionary societies and other
Christian leaders.

S43

ANALYTICAL INDEX
CHAPTER VIII

FACTORS ESSENTIAL TO THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE
WORLD IN THIS GENERATION

I. Factors on the mission field, 160-179.

1. More missionaries necessary, 160-166.

(1) For what work, 160-162,

(2) Where needed, 162.

(3) How many, 162,

(4) The Church able to furnish them, 163, 164.

(5) Thoroughly qualified missionaries needed, 164-

166.

(a) Necessity of having highly qualified mission-

aries, 164, 165.

(b) Vital importance of the spiritual qualifica-

tions, 165, 166.

2. Great increase in the number of well-qualified na-

tive workers, 167-172.

(1) Large numbers will be needed, 167.

(2) Advantages which they possess, 167, 168.

(3) Success achieved by them, 168, 169.

(4) Enlisting and training them, 170-172.

(a) Value of educational missionary work, 170,

171.

(b) Student Young Men's Christian Association,

171, 172.

3. Great increase in voluntary Christian work by the

rank and file of the native Church, 172-175.

4. Enlargement of work for children, 175, 176.

5. Promotion of the spirit and practice of comity and

co-operation, 176-178.

(1) Advantages, 176, 177.

(2) Ways in which various missions may co-operate,

177, 178.

6. The leaders must recognize the evangelization of the

world in this generation as something not only to
be desired but also to be accomplished, 178^ 179.
243

THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD

II. Factors on the home field, 179-195.

1. Missionary churches, 179-190.

(1) Must be intelligent regarding missions, 180, 181.

(2) Must be self-sacrificing churches, 182-187.

(a) The members should recognize their respon-

sibility as Christian stewards, 182.

(b) Need of greater vigilance and conscientious-

ness in the matter of expenditures, 182,
183.

(c) Need of more self-denial, 183, 184.

(d) The call to self-denial and liberality comes

to all Christians, 184, 185.

(e) Special opportunity of the rich, 185-187.

(f) Co operation of the poor and those of mod-

erate means also essential, 187.
(3) Must be praying churches, 187-190.

(a) Everything vital to missions hinges on

prayer, 187-189.

(b) Means of promoting prayer among Chris-

tians, 189, 190.

2. The leaders of the Church must regard the evangel-

ization of the world in this generation as a pri-
mary obligation and devote themselves to its
accomplishment, 190, 191.

3. Missionary pastors, 191-194.

(1) Key position held by the pastor, 191, 192.

(2) Methods employed by the missionary pastor, 192,

193.

(3) Necessity of giving the subject of missions larger

attention in the theological seminaries, 193,
194.

4. Student Volunteer Movement, 194, 195,

244

ANALYTICAL INDEX

CHAPTER IX

THE EVANGELIZATION OP THE WORLD IN THIS GENEB-
ATION AS A WATCHWORD

I. Origin of the use as a watchword of the phrase, the
evangelization of the world in this generation, 196-
198.

1. In America, 19G, 197.

2. In Great Britain, 197, 198,

II. What was intended by the leaders of the Student Vol-
unteer Movement when they officially adopted the
Watchword, 198.

III. Advantages of its wording, 198, 199.

IV. Its value, 199-204.

1. To the Student Volunteer Movement, 199, 200.

2. To individual Christians. Testimonies, 200-204.

V. If the Watchword is to be realized, it must be adopted
by individual Christians, 204-206.

1. Its adoption by organizations not sufficient, 204.

2. The responsibility of each Christian, 204, 205.

3. Nothing should prevent one from discharging his

responsibility, 205, 206.
VI. What is involved in the personal adoption of the Watch-
word, 206-210.

1. It helps one in determining his life-work and in mak-

ing his preparation, 206, 207.

2. Necessitates the study of missions, 207.

3. Calls for reality in Christian experience, 207, 208.

4. Summons to a life of self-denial, 208.

5. Involves a life of prayer, 208.

6. Means a hfe of intensity and activity to promote the

realization of the Watchword, 208, 209.

7. Requires that a man press the Watchword upon

others, 209, 210.

245

BV Mott, John Raleigh

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1901

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